


A Pair of Tricksters

by Jetainia



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Character Death, Character Revival, Hurt/Comfort, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, M/M, Trickster Sam
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-05-05 17:25:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 41,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14623542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jetainia/pseuds/Jetainia
Summary: Sam Winchester is injured during a hunt and has to go to hospital. His father leaves with Dean to hunt while he heals. A doctor by the name of Tricks offers Sam friendship and many lollipops. When Sam is healed and his family doesn't come, Doctor Tricks offers him a new home. Sam accepts.





	1. Introducing Tricks

**Author's Note:**

> This is a rewrite of the story A Pair of Tricksters. You can find the original full version on fanfiction.net under the same name. There will be differences between this and the original, I'll also be adding some more plot later down the line.  
> It will take me awhile until I finish this rewrite though with all the other things I need to do so if you want to read this story in full (with slight differences), go ahead and read it on FFn. Please, don't mind all the mistakes and blatant advertising for Australia in there. Those will get fixed eventually.

“Can’t I go with you this time? You’ve been training me and I know lots of things and I can just research if you don’t want me to go hunting. Please! I don’t want to stay here by myself.” Sam was begging, he knew he was but that seemed to be the only way to get through to his dad and brother. They were looking at him now and he could see that Dad was wavering.

“Alright, you can come but you stay in the car and only do research. You’re not good enough to hunt yet. Dean, you’re looking out for him. Sam, you do what Dean tells you to do.”

“Yes sir,” the two boys said in unison.

Samuel Winchester—Sam—was eight years old and had been travelling with his brother and father ever since he was six months and their house had burnt down; taking Mary Winchester, his and Dean’s mother, with it. Their father had gone mad with grief and the need for revenge, and he had dragged his two sons with him as he found out all he could about the supernatural world.

Sam had only just learnt about the monsters his father hunted that year and had since learnt all he could from both his father’s journal and the various reference books he had found in libraries and online. Dean had tried to protect him but like all children, Sam had decided that he knew best and demanded to know all of the facts.

His father—John Winchester—had been taking Dean on hunts for a few months now, leaving Sam in whatever motel room they were currently holed up in. This time, he would be accompanying them. They thought that it might be a werewolf, meaning all they needed Sam for was figuring out who the werewolf was, seeing as they already knew how to kill it.

So, Sam scoured the records he could find and the statements his dad had gathered, piecing together the puzzle pieces until he had a reasonable suspect. Then he was told to stay in the motel room while John and Dean staked the place out to make sure they had the right person before they went in with guns blazing.

Of course, being Sam and still a child, he followed them to the apartment where they thought the werewolf lived. Hiding in a patch of bushes on the other side of the road he watched the 1967 Chevy Impala that his dad and brother were in as well as the apartment. It was a fair night, clear enough that the full moon shone down with no obstructions and warm enough that Sam only needed a windbreaker.

All of a sudden there was movement from within the apartment and the werewolf burst out causing John and Dean to jump out of the Impala, both holding guns loaded with silver bullets. Sam shivered at the sight, it was the first supernatural creature he had ever seen, his father’s face was screwed up in hatred as he advanced. The werewolf, previously known as Patricia Lane, ignored him and ran straight towards the bushes where Sam was hiding.

In a panic, Sam scrambled away. The boy hadn’t thought he’d be attacked and didn’t have a weapon to defend himself with. Dean yelled when he saw Sam, running towards him while their father took aim. The werewolf was near him now, claws reaching out to maul him, rip open his chest and take his heart. He felt them dig in as a sharp retort sounded and the werewolf slumped forwards.

Sam lay still under the body as Dean rushed towards him with John following. They rolled the werewolf off of Sam and Dean immediately gathered his little brother up in his arms, fingers hovering the four long slashes on his chest where the claws had dug in. “He’s hurt bad, Dad!”

John Winchester gave his youngest son a cursory once over, “We’ll have to take him to a hospital. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“Your son should be fine Mr Trippen. He just needs some rest to give the wounds time to heal. We’ve given him stitches and they’ll be ready to take out in approximately two weeks. He won’t be able to have any pressure on the wound or move much until it’s fully healed which should take about three weeks. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to keep him here under observation. Young people are more susceptible for things to go wrong and we don’t want anything to happen to your son. You can go see him now if you want.”

“Thanks Doctor Marsh, I’m just glad he’s alive.” John Winchester, or Mr Trippen as the hospital knew him to be, smiled wearily at the doctor and hugged Dean closer to his side. “C’mon Dean, let’s go see Sammy.”

Dean went to Sam’s side as soon as they entered the hospital room and Sam smiled up at him. His torso was wrapped in bandages and there was an uneaten jello cup on the table by his side. “Hey Dean, Dad,” the eight-year-old greeted.

“Hey Sammy, how you feeling?”

“Alright, I guess. When am I getting out of here?”

Dean looked at his dad enquiringly as John leaned against the doorframe to Sam’s hospital room and sighed. “I don’t know, Sam. You were hit pretty good. What were you doing out there? I told you to wait in the motel room for this exact reason!”

“I know Dad, but I wanted to help! You keep making me wait where it’s safe and it’s boring! You always let Dean go with you, so why not me?”

John sighed and ran a hand over his face, “You’re still young, Sam. I can’t teach you everything you need to know yet. Dean comes because he’s older and knows how to look after himself better than you do.”

“But, Dad!”

“No, Sam. No more hunts for you.”

Sam huffed and leaned back against the hospital bed pillows. Dean grinned at him and grabbed for the uneaten jello cup left on Sam’s tray, Sam immediately swiped at his hand and Dean smirked unrelenting when he emerged victorious from their brief spat. “You’ll be okay Sammy, I’m sure the nice doctors will give you heaps of jello while you’re here. One less cup won’t kill you.”

Sam glared at his brother and Dean just smiled back, mouth full of jello. John sighed again, “We’re going out of town for a bit, Sam. We can’t afford to stay here while you heal, there are more hunts nearby that need to be taken care of.”

Dean and Sam both turned to stare at their father, “We’re not staying with him?” Dean asked incredulously.

“We can’t Dean, I just said that.”

“What monster is more important than Sam, Dad?”

John glared at his oldest son, military officer coming out in full force. “And what about the people that the monster is going to kill? We know Sam is going to be fine here, so we should keep working while he heals. We’ll come back in a few weeks, when the doctor says that he’s ready to leave.”

Dean sighed as his father gave his orders but nodded in acquiescence, “Yes, sir.”

Sam looked at Dean with his famous puppy-dog eyes and Dean cringed. He couldn’t say no to his baby brother, but nor could he disobey a direct order from their father. “Sorry, Sammy. We’ll come back soon, yeah? Maybe you could ask someone if you could borrow a phone and call us?”

John grunted at that, “No.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because if he calls us during a hunt, the monster could be alerted to our presence or get away while we’re distracted by Sam calling us.”

The two brothers sighed, they knew that when their father was like this, there was nothing that could change his mind. Sam wouldn’t be calling them while he healed in the hospital. John and Dean would leave town, probably as soon as they had left the hospital. He would see them in a few weeks, when he had healed.

After that was decided, the family said goodbye to each other and Sam watched his brother and father walk away, holding a half-eaten cup of jello that Dean had pressed in his hand before he left. He sighed and stuck the spoon in and out of the gelatinous substance, watching as it dipped and rose with every poke.

This was probably going to be the greatest entertainment he could find during the next two or three weeks. He didn’t even have any books to read. The time ahead seemed to grow longer as the distance between him and his family greatened. With each poke of his spoon, Sam wondered how fascinating he would find this activity once he had been doing it for two weeks. With a sigh, he stopped poking the spoon into the jello and instead used it to scoop the stuff up and into his mouth, he may as well eat.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

The door swung open and Sam grinned at the face of his favourite doctor. “Heya, kiddo! How are you doing today?”

“Not bad, Doctor Tricks, just waiting for the miracle of healing to be over.”

Dr Tricks laughed and picked up the clipboard at the end of Sam’s bed, examining it. They had formed a friendship over the past week and had even created inside jokes. Sam’s fears over only being entertained by wobbling jello were unfounded when he had been assigned to the smiling doctor in front of him.

“Well, looks like you’re still on track. Your wounds are healing pretty good and your jello intake has stabilised.” They both laughed, Sam had inhaled many jello cups during his first few days in the hospital, feeling as though if he didn’t have them then, they would disappear on him.

“How long do you think I have left?”

Dr. Tricks pouted, “Why so eager to leave Sammikins? I thought you liked me?”

Sam grinned at the doctor’s antics, “It’s not you, it’s me.”

Dr. Tricks’ face brightened immediately as he let out a proud chuckle. “That’s my boy, I have been teaching you well. Lollipop?”

The lollipop he offered was a bright green and he had offered one to Sam every day since he had taken over from Dr Marsh. Sam had refused the first few times but had eventually given in when the doctor kept offering and now loved the things. “Yes, please.”

He made grabby hands towards the sweets and Dr Tricks laughed before handing it over to him. “Maybe I’m swapping one problem with another,” he mused. “Am I going to have to monitor your lollipop intake from now on, young man?”

Sam poked a green tongue out at the doctor, “You’re the one giving them to me, why don’t you ask yourself that question?”

The doctor blinked and then hummed, “That’s true. Very clever Sambo, very clever indeed.”

Sam grinned around his lollipop and the doctor sighed before flopping down into one of the visitor’s chairs that sat along the side of Sam’s room. Sam looked at him expectantly, still thoroughly enjoying his lollipop but also eager for what he knew was coming next. Dr. Tricks grinned at him and took a deep breath.

“Once, before the Earth, there was a family. They seemed to be the perfect family, until it all changed…”

Sam listened intently to the tale being woven by his doctor. Dr. Tricks always had the best stories, and he always had time to tell Sam one or two of them before moving on with his rounds.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

The two weeks were up, and Sam felt better than ever. His wounds were completely healed, and he felt ready to go out and take down the monsters along with his father and brother. Except they didn’t come. Sam waited the whole day, eagerly bouncing up and down on his bed as he waited for his dad and Dean to come through the door and pick him up.

When they didn’t come that day, he figured they might have arrived from their latest hunt super late and had stayed at a motel for the night and would come by the next day. So he waited, going to sleep with a smile on his face at the thought of seeing his brother again. The next day, however, was the same as the one before. No one came to pick him up.

Dr. Tricks came by, concerned that Sam was still in the hospital and hadn’t yet been discharged when he was perfectly healthy now. They had waited together for half the day, Dr. Tricks doing his best to keep Sam distracted before he had to leave. After that, it was all Sam could think about. Where was his family? Why hadn’t they come for him? Had they gotten hurt during a hunt and couldn’t?

It was the only explanation that made sense. Sam really, really hoped that they were okay. Was Dean also lying in a hospital bed or his dad? He couldn’t stop worrying about his family. Hunting was a dangerous business, Sam knew that. He knew that a demon had killed his mother and now he couldn’t help but fear that some other monster had killed his father and brother.

The door to his hospital room opened and Dr Tricks walked in, returning from the rounds he had left to do previously. Sam smiled at him slightly, too worried about his family to truly be happy about seeing his friend. Dr Tricks sighed and sat next to him on the bed, “How you going, kiddo?”

Sam shrugged, “Alright, I guess. Have you heard anything?”

“’Fraid not, Sammikins.” Dr Tricks pulled out another lollipop from his seemingly endless supply and handed it over to Sam who took it. When he only fiddled with it, Dr Tricks sighed quietly, “That’s a sweet, Sammy-boy, not a fiddle toy.”

“Sorry, just not feeling like it.”

Dr Tricks sighed again and pulled the boy into a sideways hug, “I know Sambo, I know.”

“Do you think they’re okay?”

“We can only hope.”

“But you can find out, right?” Sam asked, looking up pleadingly at Dr Tricks.

The doctor smiled down at him inquiringly, “And how would I do that, hmm? I’m just a doctor.”

Sam snorted, “No you’re not. I’m not stupid, I know you’re not human.”

“What?” Doctor Tricks stared down at him in shock, moving Sam away from his body slightly. The boy grinned up at him cheekily.

“You really expected me to not notice that your lollipops were _special_? My family are hunters! Wherever they are…”

“You are too smart for your own good, kiddo. But, I suppose, since you’ve figured out that I’m not your average doctor, I can check in on your family.”

Sam sat up eagerly, “Really?”

“Yeah, really. Family is important.” He stood up, “I’ll be back in a mo’,” pointing at the lollipop Sam still held he said, “eat that while I’m gone.”

Sam watched as his doctor snapped his fingers and vanished from the room. He was feeling slightly giddy at the fact that he had been right about Dr Tricks not being human. Surely, once his father learned that Sam had been able to identify a supernatural creature whilst in hospital, he’d let Sam help more. If he was still alive that is…

The youngest Winchester shook himself, Dr Tricks was going to check on his family and he’d know if they were okay soon. Remembering the doctor’s final words, Sam finally unwrapped the sweet he had been twirling around in his hand. The lollipops were amazing, and one suck sent a wave a warmth through Sam. How the supernatural doctor had ever imagined Sam wouldn’t notice, the boy didn’t know. It was clear that the sweets were anything but ordinary.

A snap echoed through the room awhile later and Dr Tricks appeared again. “Well?” Sam asked, a touch fearfully.

“They’re fine, Sammikins. I think they just got caught up in a hunt, but it seems to be wrapping up. Nothing to worry about.”

Sam collapsed back onto the bed and heaved a great sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“No worries at all, kid.” The doctor hesitated a bit then asked, “Why do you trust me?”

The boy blinked, “Huh?”

“You trust me, even though you know that I’m what your family hunts. Why?”

“Um,” Sam had to pause for a moment. “I guess, ‘cos you never gave me any reason not to? Your lollipops helped me get better quicker, right? And, if you wanted to kill me, you wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble of healing me. Plus, you’re playing or _are_ a doctor and I haven’t heard or seen anything strange happening, so I figure you’re not trying to hurt anyone. So, whatever you are, you’re a good one.”

Dr Tricks stared at the boy who so casually accepted him even though he had been taught that everything supernatural was a monster and must be killed. Eventually he said, “Loki.”

“Loki?”

“That’s my name. That’s who I am. Loki.”

It was Sam’s turn to stare, though he was staring in wonder. “As in Loki from Norse mythology?”

Loki nodded, “That would be me, yes.”

“Wow.”

“Not sure that’s the reaction your father would have if he knew he had left his son in the care of a pagan god,” Loki laughed, and Sam grimaced.

“My father thinks that everything supernatural is inherently evil,” Sam explained even though Loki probably already knew that. “Does this mean that the rest of the Norse gods are real, too?”

“Mmmhmm, bunch of bores that lot. Much more fun to hang out with Hermes and Anansi.”

“Wow,” Sam said again, his young mind flooding with the new confirmed information.

Loki gave the kid a sideways look. “You know,” he said consideringly, “I could take you to your family now instead of having to wait until they drove all the way back here.”

“You would do that?”

“Sure, why not? You have got to be pretty bored just sitting around here all day waiting for them to pick you up.”

Sam grinned, “That would be awesome, Loki! Are you gonna use magic?”

“What else am I going to use?” Loki raised an eyebrow, “A Mini Cooper?”


	2. Home Tricks Home

John and Dean Winchester stood over the open grave of one Winnifred Foran – the body inside the grave was currently burning in a concoction of gasoline and salt lit with a match. It had taken them a few days to find out the identity of the ghost that had been haunting the town they were now in, but they had done it, and now Winnifred was nothing more than some burnt bones.

Two weeks had passed since they had left the youngest of them in a hospital in a town several thousands of miles away. The elder of the two standing by the burning grave had continued to push forward, finding hunts further and further away from where his son lay in a bed recuperating. He didn’t think anything of it, there were monsters out there that needed to be killed and he would go where the job took him.

The boy standing next to him was sightly more agitated. He had been counting down the days to when he would be able to see his brother again. By his calculations, the time where they should have turned back had been three days ago and yet here they were, still hours away from Sam and standing over a freshly dug grave with a bonfire crackling away inside it.

John Winchester grunted in satisfaction as the flames started to die down. Gesturing to his son to do the same, he picked up his shovel and started to fill in the grave with the soil they had previously dug out. Dean hesitated but did as his father ordered while also gathering up the courage to ask, “Are we going to go get Sam now, Dad?”

His father sighed and continued shovelling, “We’ll see, Dean.”

“What do you mean, we’ll see? He’s been alone for two weeks! The doctor said he’d be healed by two weeks, so we should go get him!”

“It’s a five-day journey back to Sam, Dean. There are monsters out there killing that need to be stopped and we can’t take a break of five days just to pick up a useless hunter like Sam.”

“Sam’s not useless!”

“Sam is a researcher, he doesn’t have what it takes to hunt down the monsters that are out there.” John abandoned his shovelling and rounded on his eldest son. “We already have enough researchers in the world, there aren’t enough hunters. I will not waste my time backtracking just to pick up a researcher when I can already call Bobby for any information that I might need.”

Dean stared at his father, shovel limp in his hands as the words his father said sank in. He had known that his brother and father hadn’t gotten along very well but this was insane. Quietly, trying to save his family but not sure if it would work, he said, “You can teach him to hunt.”

“Not likely,” John snorted. “Hunting takes a special gift that your brother shows no sign in having. You though, you have it in spades and that’s why I know you’ll make a great hunter one day. Just watch, soon just the sound of your name will send the monsters running away.”

“Okay sir, but what about Sam?”

“Shut up about Sam! He disobeyed my orders and let that werewolf attack him. He has no place in being a hunter!”

“We’re just going to leave him in the hospital?” Dean exclaimed. “He’s going to freak! He’ll probably think we’re dead!”

“I’d be doing him a favour.” John grasped his son’s shoulders and shook him, grave filling forgotten in the argument. “Your brother won’t last another month in this life, you know that, Dean. He’s weak! He’s always been weak, and he always will be, it’s in his blood. You can’t change a person as much as you would need to change Sam to make him strong. Do you understand?”

“But sir-”

“No, Dean. You saw what happened when Sam thought he could keep up with real hunters such as us. He got hurt, he would have been killed if I hadn’t been there. Forget about him, you don’t have a brother anymore.”

With that said, John picked up his shovel again and fiercely threw the rest of the dirt inside the grave. He ignored his son as Dean stood unblinking, unable to process the fact that his father had just renounced his little brother. Within a few more moments, the grave of Winnifred Foran was filled, and John was pulling his son over to the Impala.

No more was said that night by the two of them. John was still dealing with the anger he felt towards his youngest son – the one that he blamed for his wife’s death. Dean was in shock. He had never believed that his father would simply kick Sam out of their family. His mind kept wandering to Sam in a hospital, probably eagerly awaiting their return.

What would his brother think when they didn’t show up?

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Back in the graveyard, next to the now full grave of Winnifred Foran, Sam and Loki stood unseen by others. Sam had been excited by the magic ride that Loki had promised him, and it had been amazing. So much better than five days in a Mini Cooper. Within a few moments, they had arrived at their destination.

Of course, given that they were seeking out a hunter and his child, Loki had decided it would be best to arrive invisible so as not to surprise the elder Winchester and thus get shot as a consequence. They had arrived in time to catch the tail end of the conversation between John and Dean and now Sam was silent.

He and his father had never really gotten along but he had never thought that his father hated him. Yes, Sam was a child and couldn’t help out on hunts much, but he could learn! He _was_ learning! Research was only the first step to becoming a hunter, after you knew what you were dealing with, you could go out and kill it with minimum research at the time. More research now meant less research then.

Sam started as he felt arms enclose around him and realised that tears had started to fall from his eyes and Loki was hugging him. Unable to stop the tears, Sam buried his face in the chest of his doctor and cried out the pain.

“I’m sorry, kiddo.”

Sam shook his head slightly and mumbled, “’s not your fault.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t be sorry,” the arms encircling him tightened and Sam cried harder. He didn’t know why he was crying really, but he was. He also didn’t particularly care, he knew that Loki wouldn’t judge him for crying.

Loki knelt down, bringing Sam to the ground with him and gathering up the young boy more firmly in his arms. Rocking back and forth, Loki rubbed Sam’s back as the child continued to cry. In a gentle voice, he soothed, “It’ll be okay, kiddo. Let it out.”

Sam sniffled and asked between sobs, “C-can you…take me…away from…here?”

“Of course, Sammy. Where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere but here.”

That request came out strongly, the youngest Winchester knowing that he didn’t want to spend another moment in the dark graveyard. There was that same rush of air that had happened when Loki had taken them to the other Winchesters and they were somewhere else entirely. The cold had been banished by a crackling fire somewhere to his right and the warm air smelt as though someone had sprayed the essence of candy all over.

“Welcome to my home, kiddo,” he heard Loki say and almost wanted to pull away from the man’s chest to look around. But the hurt was still fresh and Loki was comforting, Sam couldn’t yet bring himself to draw away from the stranglehold he had on the pagan god.

Loki sighed as he looked down at the distraught child he held before asking, “You want a hot chocolate or something?” Sam nodded, not looking up. Loki merely hummed, chocolate was always good for emotional comfort, “You’re going to need let go of me then.”

Sam shook his head and somehow tightened his grip causing Loki to sigh again. It would appear that he would be making hot chocolate one-handed. Of course, he could snap one up but he thought that a reminder of the supernatural, and thus his family, would not do Sam any good at that moment.

So, the pagan god Loki—wielder of many mighty powers—struggled to fill up a kettle and set it to boil using a single hand. Continuing on once that task had been completed, Loki fetched a mug from one of the cupboards above the kitchen counter. Into that mug went three heaped teaspoons of chocolate powder and the waiting began.

Whilst waiting, Loki grabbed two chocolate bars from his kitchen stash and handed one over to the boy who still hadn’t moved from his limpet position. The other went into a pocket for later. The kettle clicked off and Loki picked it up—carefully keeping it away from the child in his arms—and poured the boiling water into the awaiting mug followed by milk from the fridge nearby.

After stirring, Loki picked up the mug and moved it, himself and Sam out of the kitchen area and into the living room. Settling down into the comfortable three-seater couch in front of the fire, Loki finally managed to get Sam to look up from where he had been hiding in the god’s chest. Loki smiled at the boy and handed over the steaming mug.

“Here you are, kiddo. Chocolate that you can dip chocolate into. Drink it all, doctor’s orders.”

Sam grinned weakly at the joke and took the cup from his supernatural doctor, “Thanks.”

Silence apart from the occasional crackle from the fire filled the room after that. Sam sipped his hot chocolate and dipped then ate his bar of chocolate. He was still in contact with Loki, not quite ready to face the world on his own yet and soaking up the comfort that had been offered so rarely by his own family. Now he knew why.

Loki seemed to sense Sam’s thoughts turning darker as he draped one arm around the boy and pulled him closer. They sat there together, gazing at the fire in front of them and eating or drinking their respective snacks. Calm exuded from Loki and Sam felt it slowly take over him until he finally broke the silence with a question that had been wandering around his mind since they had arrived at Loki’s home.

“Do…do you think I could stay here with you? I don’t really have anywhere else to go, I promise I won’t bother you.”

Loki chuckled slightly, “Bothering is part of the fun, Sammikins. But in answer to your question, yes. You can stay with me as long as you need to until we find a place that you can call your own home.”

Sam sighed in relief and snuggled even closer to Loki, setting aside his empty cup as he did so. Loki found himself smiling fondly as he realised that the child had fallen asleep on him. Who would have guessed that a hunter in training would have felt comfortable enough in a supernatural creature’s presence to fall asleep?

Gently—not wanting to wake up Sam—Loki gathered up the boy and carried him to the room he had just created. It would be Sam’s room for however long the Winchester remained with Loki. Laying the sleeping child on the newly created bed and tucking him in, Loki brushed back the fringe that had managed to land on the boy’s closed eyelids.

“Good night, Sam. Sweet dreams.”

It was only after Loki had left the room and started cleaning up that he realised what he had just done. He had taken in a Winchester. Not just any Winchester, either. No, he had somehow managed to take in the Winchester that was destined to become the vessel of Lucifer. There were no delicate ways to realise just how badly he was screwed.

All those millenniums of hiding and his own version of a witness protection program were about to go down the drain. Simply because he couldn’t let a child wait in a hospital for a family that would never come, because he couldn’t let that same child return to the father that so obviously didn’t want him around.

Loki had no doubt that he would not be allowed to leave Sam’s life completely. He was sure that even when the boy found his own place in the world, he would somehow coerce the god into at least visiting him. And Loki would go, for how could he refuse the wishes of a child that was now all alone?


	3. A Day in the Life of Tricks

Sam woke with a start. He had been dreaming that his father had abandoned him without a second thought and was thankful to be awake. As Sam gazed around the unfamiliar room he found himself in, he realised that he hadn’t been dreaming. His father _had_ removed him from the family, had decided that hunting and killing monsters was more important than his youngest _weak_ son.

His eyes started to prickle from tears, but Sam forced them back, he had cried enough last night. A smell wafted into the room and Sam’s nose twitched. It smelled of sugar and flour, something was being cooked. Curious, Sam pushed back the cover he was under and slipped out of the bed. Seeing a pair of slippers about his size next to the bed, Sam put them on and padded out of his bedroom.

Following the sounds of activity, Sam found himself passing through a living room and into a kitchen. The kitchen was set out in a long line with an island separating the main part from the rest of the room. Loki had changed from the general doctor clothes he had worn most often when he had visited Sam in the hospital.

Instead, he wore casual light jeans and a dark shirt covered by a leather jacket. His golden hair still hung loose from his head and swayed with the god’s movements. Loki was currently standing over the stove with a spatula, rocking back and forth to some unknown beat heard only by him, and flipping over pancakes as they cooked. Already, a sizeable stack of ready pancakes was sitting on a plate next to the stove.

As Sam watched, Loki flipped the last pancake onto the stack and turned the stove off. The plate was picked up and placed on the island that was already full of different toppings. The pagan god grinned at Sam, “Morning kiddo! Hungry?”

Sam nodded and moved to the kitchen island, clambering onto one of the stools that sat there for such a purpose. His eyes scanned the offerings of toppings; ice cream, whipped cream, strawberry jam, maple syrup, Nutella, lemon juice and caster sugar. “Thank you, Loki.”

Loki waved off the thanks and plonked a pancake on Sam’s plate. “No thanks necessary kid. Now eat, you’ll have to make do with normal food now that you’re out of the hospital.”

Sam made a face, “That won’t be too hard, hospital food is not the best.”

“Except the jello, of course.”

“And the lollipops!”

Loki grinned at him, “We mustn’t forget the lollipops. Now eat.”

Sam pulled his plate with the pancake on it closer to it and examined the toppings in front of him. Deciding to have a breakfast that was not entirely sweet, Sam elected to have lemon juice and sugar instead of the other options. Evidently Loki didn’t care about having a breakfast that was all sweet seeing as he had ice cream and maple syrup on his pancake.

Together they ate breakfast in reasonable silence with only the sounds of utensils and chewing to fill the space. When all the pancakes were gone – Sam having eaten three and Loki eight – Loki asked Sam what he wanted to do that day. The boy had been stumped, throughout his life he had never really had much choice in activities to be done during the day. The only activities available for him were researching about hunts, learning how to hunt or waiting for Dean and his dad to come back from a hunt.

Knowing nothing else, Sam hesitantly suggested finding a library somewhere and reading. Loki nodded but suggested a slight edit to his plan, “I have a library here that you can make your way through. You feel like having a break today and then going out to see some random sights tomorrow?”

Thinking about it, Sam had to admit that it was a pretty good plan. He could use a rest day to process what had happened yesterday instead of burying the pain to deal with later. “Where’s the library?”

“Just through there,” Loki pointed out of the kitchen, through the living room and then into a circular room that was the library. When Sam got up and started to clean up breakfast, Loki waved him away. “No, Sammy, you go and read. I’ll clean all of this up in a snap.”

Sam considered and then nodded gratefully, making his way over to the library that Loki had pointed out. Loki grinned after him and looked around the messy kitchen. With a snap, the kitchen was as clean as though it had never been used. He nodded in satisfaction and popped a Jolly Rancher in his mouth.

The young Winchester spent the day exploring all the different titles that Loki had in his library. There were books in all types of genres; mythology books that told the real tales of the myths, books that told of monsters that went bump in the night, _The Hobbit_ and _The Lord of the Rings_ were there, autobiographies of various historical figures and so much more.

Loki sat in a chair in the corner of the library while Sam drifted back and forth, occasionally settling down to read a book he had found that seemed more interesting than the others. Snacks drifted in every few hours for the young boy to eat while he read. The trickster kept an eye on Sam as he mentally sifted through the various targets deserving of his own brand of justice.

When the sun had set and it was closer to six o’clock, Loki clapped his hands and stood up. Sam jolted out of his reading trance and Loki dragged him out into the kitchen. “Come on, kiddo, dinner time.”

Simple lasagne was served that night, boring and nutritional but Loki figured that a young boy probably shouldn’t live on sweets like a trickster did. Of course, that didn’t mean that Sam couldn’t have any dessert and that was chocolate pudding.

The following days were not at all similar to that first day. They were full of adventure, Loki took Sam all over the world to see the various sights. They visited the Parthenon in Rome, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, the Empire State Building in New York and many more.

The relationship between the god and the ex-hunter in training from the hospital grew stronger until they were more family than friends. Sam never forgot his old family – he never forgot that he had been cast out of the Winchester family by his own father. It didn’t seem to matter as much after a while, he had a new family now even if it was only he and Loki. Family was family and Sam was happy.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

It was a year since Sam had been in the hospital for an injury caused by a werewolf and had met Doctor Tricks. Throughout that year, there had been adventures and happiness abounding. No longer was his life full of hunting the monsters hidden in the dark. There were rest days of reading and games and there were days of galivanting around the world.

It was currently a rest day and Loki had suddenly realised that he had promised to find Sam a place to belong in the world now he didn’t have his original family. Looking over at the young boy that was immersed in a book and sipping a hot chocolate, Loki asked, “Are you happy here, Sam?”

The boy glanced up, “I’ve been here for a year and you’re only now asking that?”

“I forgot,” Loki shrugged. “I told you that I’d find you a place in the world, but I haven’t done that. You want to do something about it?”

“I like it here, with you.” Sam went back to his book which left Loki staring at him in slight shock.

Never had he imagined that there would be a hunter child comfortable with staying with him. He was, after all, what they were taught to hunt. Now, here was Samuel Winchester willingly staying with him. The boy didn’t seem to have any wish to leave him and Loki had grown quite attached to Sam as well.

Loki decided that he would see if Sam was open to a more permanent life with him. “Hey Sammy, you know what I am, yeah?”

Sam looked up from his book again and nodded, “Loki, the Norse god of mischief and fire.”

“I was thinking that maybe you’d want to join me in my tricking.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, I have a friend that’s considering retiring and looking for someone to train to take his place. He’d give you a trial period of a few hundred years and if you liked it, he’d give you his powers. You’d become a god as well.”

“A few _hundred years_? I won’t live that long!”

“You’ll be in a pocket dimension while he teaches you. Can’t leave a spot open in the pantheon for that long after all.”

Sam slowly closed his book and gazed at Loki with a contemplative look on his face. The pagan god was offering to make Sam into a god like him via a traineeship with someone he assumed was another pagan god. If he agreed to Loki’s suggestion, he’d probably become immortal. Immortality meant that he’d be able to stay with Loki and he liked Loki. Immortality also meant that he’d outlive his old family and any human friends he might make.

Even if he agreed to the plan now, he’d be able to say no later if he decided he didn’t want to be god after all. “Your friend, is he a trickster god?”

Loki nodded, “Yes, he is.”

According to all lore about tricksters, they were creatures that enjoyed punishing those who deserved punishment. Sam had met bullies in the various schools he had been in and he figured he’d enjoy showing them the other side of the equation.

Mind made up, Sam looked into Loki’s apprehensive face, “I’ll do it. Trial period first though.”

Loki grinned and leapt out of his chair to pick up Sam and whirl him around. “Haha! Yes, Sammikins! We’re going to have fun together. Let’s go.”

“Wait! Loki,” Sam patted the shoulder he could reach to gain the tricksters attention, “where are we going?”

“We,” Loki finally set down Sam, “are going to see my old friend Hermes.”

Sam stared up at Loki, “ _Hermes_? The _Greek_ god?”

“That would be him. Pack your bags, Sammy. You’ve got a long few hundred years in front of you.”

Sam grinned and ran into his room. On his bed was a new suitcase and Sam hurriedly started filling it with all the things he thought he might need such as clothes, toiletries and books for entertainment. As he packed, his mind raced through the idea he had just agreed to. He was going to be trained by _Hermes_ the _Greek god_ to be a _replacement_. If he decided he liked being a trickster, he would eventually _become_ Hermes. He would become a monster that hunters like his father tracked down and killed.

The thought filled him with trepidation but as he thought of the father that had abandoned him, Sam decided he couldn’t care less. He had found a new family and he knew that if he stayed mortal, he would die someday and leave Loki alone. He didn’t want to do that after Loki had taken him in and cared for him. He wanted to be with Loki forever and if becoming a supernatural being was the way to do it, Sam was at least going to try.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tada! Now we move away from the original version and bring in a whole new plot point! No more stealing a Vincent van Gogh painting for a ritual to turn Sam into a trickster (which is what I had before).


	4. One Tricks, Two Tricks

A pagan god and a hunter child walked into a temple. The temple of Hermes was small and slightly hidden in a side street in Athens. Loki bounded in full of energy while Sam was slightly more reserved and examined the temple as he entered. It was falling down, as was the norm for such buildings, but it did have three and a half walls along with almost a quarter of a roof. The ancient marble was crumbling and would eventually disappear completely.

“Loki!” boomed a voice and Loki nimbly jumped to the side to avoid a sudden deluge of Coca-Cola.

“You’ll have to do better than that, Hermes!” Loki replied, snapping his fingers and vanishing the fizzing soda.

A man shimmered into existence as another snap was heard and Sam got his first look at a Greek god. Hermes had a shaggy hairstyle of white hair that fell just past his shoulders with bright green eyes sparkling below the side-swept fringe. He was dressed in a deep blue suit with a caduceus tie pin attached to the green tie.

The two tricksters grinned at each other and exchanged a hug before both jumping back and removing a trick item from themselves that had been placed there by the other. Hermes turned to look at Sam and Loki bounded over to his young charge, placing his hands on the boy’s shoulders.

“Hermes, meet Sam Winchester.”

Hermes’ eyebrows rose, “Winchester? You’re recommending a Winchester to replace me?”

Loki nodded, “Who better to be a trickster god than someone who used to hunt creatures like what they’ll become? Already, he’ll have performed one of the greatest tricks!”

“You may be right, my friend,” Hermes laughed.

“Of course I am, I’m the great Loki of Asgard, after all.”

Hermes gave Loki a look, “You hate Asgard.”

Loki shrugged, “Doesn’t mean that I’m not of it.”

“Whatever you say, Loki. Now, let’s leave this conversation behind and move on to why you are here.” Hermes walked up to the pair and gravely held out a hand to the young child. “Greetings Sam Winchester, I am Hermes of Greece. I thank you for considering being my successor.”

Sam shook the god’s hand hesitantly and he grinned. “It’s nice to meet you, sir.”

“Oh no,” Hermes laughed, “we can’t have that. You’re on the road to becoming a trickster laddie, we don’t bother with such things as politeness.”

“Sorry. Wait—no, not sorry. Definitely not sorry, Hermes.” Sam nodded confidently to himself, sure that he’d figured it out.

Hermes nodded approvingly, “That’s more like it!”

“You okay with teaching him, Hermes? No hard feelings over him previously belonging to the hunters?”

“None at all,” Hermes grinned at his fellow god. “You’ve convinced me and like you said, what could be better than teaching a hunter to become that which he used to hunt?”

Loki looked at Sam, “You happy to learn from Hermes for the next few hundred years, Sammy?”

Sam nodded and grinned at Loki, “Thanks, Loki.”

“Not a problem kiddo, not a problem.” Loki turned Sam around to face him fully, knelt down, and drew the young Winchester into a hug. “You won’t see me for the first fifty years, no interaction with another trickster when starting an apprenticeship under one is one of the few rules we actually follow. But after that, I’ll pop in occasionally to see how you’re going. I won’t abandon you Sammikins.”

“I understand, Loki,” Sam hugged his friend tightly before they both pulled back and Loki stared into Sam’s eyes searchingly.

“You good if I leave you here with Hermes now?”

Sam turned to look at the Greek god who smiled at him and the boy nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

Loki stood up and ruffled his hair, “Glad to hear it, Sambo.” Pointing a threatening finger at Hermes, he warned, “You take care of him, Hermes or I’ll tell Aphrodite who exchanged her blush for powdered ketchup.”

“You got it, Loki,” Hermes saluted and they both grinned.

“Have fun, Sammy. I’ll see you in fifty years.”

“You’d better,” Sam returned.

Loki turned and walked out of Hermes’ temple, looking back once to see that Hermes had come to stand next to Sam and both were watching him go. He waved and saw their return waves before he gathered his energy and snapped away to his now empty home.

Back at the temple, Hermes let his new charge silently say goodbye to Loki for a minute and then clapped him on the back, “Well then, young Winchester, shall we see where you’ll be staying for the next few decades?”

Sam looked up at Hermes, “Sure!”

Hermes grabbed the suitcase that Sam had left standing by the entrance of his temple and offered his hand to the child, “Then let’s go.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

The first few years of studying under Hermes were spent learning about the various different deities that existed in the world and expanding the spark of mischievousness that Sam possessed into a small well of trickster power. Throughout that time, Sam explored the bubble that he and Hermes now lived in. According to Hermes, it was a piece of land taken out of time a thousand years ago that all tricksters used when they were training a new trickster.

Hermes had discarded the blue suit he wore to their first meeting – saying that it was generally only for important and fancy occasions or when Zeus demanded he be more ‘respectable’ than he normally was. Instead, the Greek god daily wore a pair of dark jeans, a blue polo shirt and a ratty flannel over the top. It was much more casual than the suit and made Sam feel more comfortable around the trickster.

Time did not exist in this bubble as Sam had previously understood time to be. Outside of the bubble, time progressed for humans in a linear fashion and that was what he was used to. Inside the bubble Hermes had taken him to, time continued on a separate path as that of outside the bubble in a way that meant almost no time passed outside while many years passed inside.

There was a small village in the bubble that was basically a training ground for new tricksters. There were always those who felt they were above the other people in the village and thus needed to be brought down a notch by the trainee trickster. The villagers knew that the tricksters existed and that they were both the guardians and adjudicators of the village they lived in. They lived in their little bubble separate from the rest of the world quite happily.

One of Sam’s favourite abilities that had been unlocked by Hermes was the teleporting. If he wanted to go somewhere, all he had to do was snap his fingers, think of the destination and he would arrive. Or course, learning said ability had resulted in several in-wall arrivals, falling from great heights upon appearing and ending up in a place the complete opposite to where he wanted to go.

Thirty years in and Sam was still having the time of his life. He was now 39 years old and knew that – unless something drastic changed – he would continue training under Hermes until the god decided he was ready to take over the role of the Greek messenger. He missed Loki and still remembered the Norse trickster from his childhood, but he knew that in another twenty years, Loki would start visiting.

Whenever Sam thought of his childhood from before the year with Loki, he shied away from the incident that had caused Loki to take him in and instead focused on the times before that. He remembered his brother—Dean—and how he had always taken care of Sam while their father went away on hunts and left them in a hotel room.

He still loved his brother, but he also rather hated him as well. Sam knew that if Dean had put up more of a fight for John to turn around and pick Sam up from the hospital, their father would have listened. John Winchester would not be able to deal with a whining child for long and would have driven the long drive to the hospital if only to make Dean be quiet. But, Dean was a child and John an adult. Both Dean and Sam had been taught early on that John’s word was law, Dean wouldn’t have wanted to face the wrath of a man that was forced to do something he didn’t want to do.

A presence formed behind him and Sam knew that Hermes had appeared. The Greek sat down next to Sam on the cliffside and gazed out into the distance along with him, “You seem glum, Sammy-boy.”

Sam shrugged, “Just thinking about my family.”

“Always a fun subject. Need anything?”

“Nah.”

A Red Vine was shoved into his mouth and Hermes leant against him eating his own Red Vine. Sam smiled slightly and accepted the trickster-style comfort—drown yourself in candy and have physical contact with another. They didn’t speak, merely sat on the edge of a cliff with their legs dangling off and stared into the never-ending horizon while eating various pieces of candy.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

The fifty years were up, and Loki was on his way to the trickster bubble that currently held Sam and Hermes. For him, it had only been the matter of an hour and he wondered how much young Samuel Winchester would have changed within that time. Hermes had sent him a message a few moments ago, informing Loki that the required fifty years had passed—opening the path for the Norse god to enter the bubble.

The bubble had no set place of entrance, Loki merely snapped and a door opened in front of him. Stepping through, Loki immediately dodged to the left and got hit by several paintball shells as a result. The sound of laughter reached him as Hermes and what he could only assume to be Sam shimmered into view.

The young man to the side of the Greek god was a complete contrast to the boy he had left behind. The man was over six feet tall and rather well-muscled. His hair had been allowed to grow and now settled just above his shoulders in a slight wave. Hazel eyes grinned at him as he took in the new Sam Winchester. Loki grinned back and found himself being squeezed tightly by a giant moose of a man. He hugged back just as tightly, regretting that he couldn’t have been there while Sam grew up but happy to see him all the same. After their hug, Loki held Sam out at arm’s length and examined him closer.

He looked happy, more confident in himself than he had been when he was a child. He was also huge. “What has Hermes been feeding you, Sammy? You’ve gone from a little rabbit to a giant moose!”

Sam laughed, “Must be all the sugar.”

Loki tilted his head to the side as he considered that, “But then all tricksters would be tall and as you can see, Hermes and I are not.”

“Well maybe it’s because I actually decided the sugar inside fruit is sugary enough and occasionally eat said fruit.” Loki stared at Sam for a few moments before turning to look at Hermes who simply nodded and shrugged in a ‘what can you do’ fashion.

“You eat _fruit_? Are you _mad_?”

“Nope,” Sam shook his head, “just like fruit.”

“That, my darling Sammikins, means that you are mad.”

Sam laughed, “Don’t bother trying to stop me, Loki. Hermes has tried already, and you can ask him how it turned out.”

Loki rose an eyebrow at the shudder Hermes gave at the mention of the obviously memorable ‘trying to get Sam to not eat fruit’ incident. He would _definitely_ be getting more information about that at a later date. Turning the conversation from Sam being the only healthy-ish trickster in existence, Loki asked, “You having fun?’

Sam, knowing what he was really asking, nodded and replied, “Yeah. Hermes isn’t going to be getting rid of me anytime soon.”

“Glad to hear it, grasshopper.”

All three of them were laughing after that, Loki was being caught up on the past fifty years of Sam’s life. Tales were told of the young boy’s attempts at transportation and the first few punishments he dealt. Later, tales were told of the quiet times spent sitting on a cliffside with memories and emotions swirling around.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

The years passed quickly after that, one blurring into another in the trickster training bubble. Sam grew older and older and never changed his visage. He was truly Hermes-in-training now that his trial period was over and he had decided to stay. Hermes loved having him around, he had been growing old and bored amongst the other Olympians. The candidate for his successor from Loki brought back his vigour and love for jokes.

In Olympus, he was forced to run errands for Zeus and rarely had the time to play any tricks. He dearly hoped that with Loki standing next to him, the next Hermes would avoid becoming Zeus’ personal errand runner. He warned the young man he was training to be careful about what he offered the god of lightning and to never, _ever_ owe that king a favour.

A thousand years had gone by since that day in one of his remaining temples where he had taken in a hunter. Other beings on the supernatural scale may think that a traineeship of one thousand two-hundred and fifty years a bit long but they didn’t know what all the tricksters knew. It took time to learn how to properly trick enough and not too much or too little. It took time to learn the different beings that they tricked and what counted as too far amongst those cultures.

Life experience needed to be gathered by a trickster so that they could properly deal with situations they may come across. And, of course, a trickster god wasn’t just a god of tricks. There were other duties that they had to fulfil in the course of their lifetime as a trickster. Hermes was a god of medicine, travellers, luck, shepherds, thieves and merchants, language and many more things that had been assigned to him throughout his and his predecessor’s long lives.

Sam was becoming more and more Hermes, he would often take over the duties that Hermes felt he was ready for and were present in the bubble world. They were in the stage of phasing out the old and bringing in the new. In another few hundred years, Sam would be Hermes and Hermes would be able to retire.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Sam was now 1,312 years old and was ready to fully assume the duties of being Hermes the Greek god of just about everything that all the others didn’t want. Hermes was leaving today and Loki had come to say goodbye to his old friend along with perform the ceremony that was required for one trickster to take the place of another. The Norse god was waiting at the cliffside and together, Hermes and Sam made their way over there at a slow and steady pace. As he walked, Hermes said goodbye to all the things that were so familiar to him.

Reaching the cliff, Loki smiled at them and gestured them to the raised dais that sat a few paces away from the drop off. They stood on it, grasping each other’s hands as though to give wedding vows. These were not wedding vows, they were far more serious than that and much more permanent. The oaths taken between a lord and a knight were based off the vows between a trickster taking over from their predecessor.

Hermes’ and Sam’s hands were bound together with twine by Loki and the ritual began. “You, Hermes of Greece, have chosen to pass your title over to the man whom you now stand opposite of. Do you stand by your decision?”

“I do,” Hermes replied, not looking away from Sam.

“Do you believe him able to properly carry out your duties and bring mirth to your name?”

“I do.”

Loki nodded and turned to look at Sam, “You, Samuel of the Winchester clan, have been chosen to replace Hermes of Greece. Do you accept this duty?”

“I do,” Sam smiled at Hermes and the god smiled back at him encouragingly.

“Will you dole out the correct punishment and forgive once the target of your punishment has repented?”

“I will.”

“Will you help your fellow tricksters if they are in need?”

“I will.”

“Recite the trickster’s oath and leave behind Samuel of the Winchester clan to become Hermes of Greece.”

Sam took a deep breath. This was it, there was no turning back after this. “Here do I, Samuel of the Winchester clan, swear fealty to the trickster code. I swear to defend the honour and mischief of the trickster kind by any means within my power, to act in all ways as a true trickster ought.

“I swear to fulfil the duties that Hermes of Greece now performs, to hear the wishes of Lord Zeus and act accordingly, to advise the Olympian Council to the best of my ability in all ways of mischief known to me. This I swear until I formally hand over my position to the next after me. So swear I, Samuel of the Winchester clan.”

Loki drew out a sharp dagger and cut first into Hermes’ palm, then Sam’s. The blood dripped onto the twine binding them together and moved along the cord, converging in the middle. Mixed together, the red substance than split in two and moved back into the palms of those bound. The twine glowed with crimson power before slowly sinking into their flesh.

It was done. Loki caught them both as they collapsed from the power backlash, laying them down on the stone dais. He would stay with them, protecting them from any threats until they awakened. Settling down, Loki dug into his pockets and brought out a box of Pocky. The two currently unconscious would need some sugar once they woke up and besides, Loki was hungry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if I'll be updating next week as the next chapter has been fighting me and (like almost every other uni student out there) I am currently in exam period so that's taking up quite a bit of time.
> 
> Also, if you have any favourite sugary delights that you think a trickster would enjoy, please let me know because I am slowly running out of known sweets that I can make them munch on.
> 
> Trickster oath taken from the fealty oath to Baron and Baroness Ynys Fawr.  
> “Here do I (name) swear fealty to the Baron and Baroness Ynys Fawr, saving only any Fealty that I may have to the Crown of Lochac. I swear to defend the Barony by any means within my power, to obey the lawful commands of the Baron and Baroness, to advise the Baron and Baroness to the best of my ability, and to act in all ways as a true liegeman ought. This I swear until I formally revoke this oath or the Baron and Baroness depart from their thrones. So swear I, (name).”  
> http://ynysfawr.lochac.sca.org/files/pdf/Fealty.pdf


	5. A Tricks Road Trip

Sam woke with a headache. He groaned, and Loki came into view as he opened his eyes. Loki was grinning at him and Sam groaned again, closing his eyes. Rustling packaging was heard and Sam reopened his eyes curiously to see Loki wrestling with a foil packet containing Pocky. The package lost, and Loki triumphantly held out the now open foil bag to Sam.

Sam flopped his arms about a bit causing Loki to smirk at how affected the new Hermes was. Plucking a stick out of the packet, Loki raised his eyebrows at Sam who sighed and opened his mouth, allowing Loki to place the stick inside. The sugar rushed through him and the workmen inside his head decided it was time for a tea break—ceasing their hammering and drilling.

Another groan sounded at Sam’s side, alerting him of Hermes’ presence. The god was lying flat on his back with an arm thrown over his eyes. “Hey Loki,” he grunted, “chuck over one of those sticks, would you?”

Loki grinned at Sam and proceeded to carefully select out a Pocky stick and throw it at Hermes. Hermes grunted when it hit him but snatched it out of the air as it bounced off of him before munching on the stick and holding out an expectant hand for another when the current stick had disappeared. Instead of receiving a single stick, Loki dumped the whole foil packet into the awaiting hand and drew out another box from his stash for Sam.

The next few minutes were accompanied by the sound of chewing by the three tricksters as two of them recovered and the other simply enjoyed the sugar. When twelve separate boxes of Pocky had been demolished along with a bag of gummy snakes, the two prone tricksters finally heaved themselves up into a sitting position.

“How are you feeling, Hermes?” Hermes asked Sam and Sam blinked.

“Okay, that’s weird.”

Hermes and Loki grinned at him and said in unison, “You’ll get used to it.”

“Are we both called Hermes, then?”

“Nope, I’ll be Ermis from now on,” the newly renamed Hermes answered. “So, how you feeling? Hearing Zeus yell at you yet?”

Sam tuned into the part of his new powers that was basically a radio channel that held all the Greek gods. It was silent apart from a flirty conversation between Aphrodite and Ares, no orders from Zeus to be heard. “I think I’m feeling good,” he said slowly, considering all the different areas that had just been opened up to him. “No Zeus yelling for me to report in.”

“Haha!” Ermis laughed, “Take that, Zeus. Stay away from them as long as you can, Hermes. Zeus can whine like no one else.”

“What are you going to do now, Ermis?” Sam asked.

Ermis shrugged, “Not entirely sure. Maybe go check in on some of my kids now that I have the time. Which reminds me, all of my kids are now your kids in a weird god way. You’re Hermes, Hermes is their father, thus congratulations! You’re a father!”

Sam stared at Ermis, “Are you serious? You didn’t think to let me know that I would get your children lumped on me if I went through with this? I really don’t think I’m father material.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Ermis waved his hand dismissively. “You’re more a step father than an actual father. If they need fatherly help they’ll probably come to me but if they godly fatherly help, they’ll go to you. It’s how Loki and Lopt work.”

Sam looked curiously at Loki and he nodded, “They’re still Lopt’s kids but they’re also my kids. It’s basically shared custody that has to happen because of god things. You also have a completely new god family. You have Zeus as a father, Maia as a mother and a whole lot of sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces and nephews.”

“Welcome to the family, Hermes,” Ermis clapped Sam on the back and grinned at Sam’s wince.

“Yeah, can we stick with Sam at the moment? It’s really weird being called Hermes.”

Loki laughed, “Sure we can Sammy-boy. Just remember that to some people, your name actually is Hermes now. Never expect Zeus to call you Sam, he’ll call you Hermes no matter what.”

“That’s fine, it’s just super weird with you two because you’ve both been calling me Sam for over a thousand years. Or some variation of it,” Sam jokingly glared at Loki at that. The other god had very rarely called him simply Sam, instead resorting to a multitude of nicknames. Then his mind caught up to what Loki had said.

“Hang on, Zeus is now _my father_?”

Ermis chuckled at the horrified look on Sam’s face. “Get used to it, kid. You’ll probably have Artemis pop in occasionally while she’s out hunting, she likes dropping in unannounced.”

Sam dropped his head onto his knees and groaned, “I didn’t sign up to get a whole confusing family tree.”

“It’s a freebie, a bonus you might say.” Loki held out a bag of jelly babies to ward off Sam’s annoyed glare and Sam snatched them from him, chewing viciously once they were in his possession.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Leaving the trickster bubble and not planning on returning to it any time soon was a strange and rather daunting experience. Sam had been preparing for this moment for over a thousand years and it had finally come around. He was Hermes, Greek god and trickster. He was more or less immortal unless he accidently caught the attention of a hunter or aggravated one of the other gods so much that they decided he’d be better off dead.

The world outside had moved forward a few months and was currently in the year 1993, he had left in 1992 after spending a year with Loki after his blood father had abandoned him in his eighth year of life. The Sam Winchester that returned was not the discarded little boy that had left. What returned to the Earth was no longer a hunter of the supernatural. He was a creature of the supernatural, a trickster.

Briefly, he wondered if his brother was missing him or somehow trying to find him. He knew that their father wouldn’t be doing anything to try and retrieve his lost son, John Winchester considered Sam Winchester to be weak and useless. It was just as well that Samuel Winchester didn’t exist anymore, Hermes of Greece had taken his place.

Sam was sure that should he ever see his blood family again, they would try and hunt him down as the monster they thought him to be. Shaking himself from such thoughts, Sam turned his attention back to the three others with him; Loki, Ermis and Lopt. They had all gathered together before the inevitable splitting apart. Ermis would be going to stay in the same place as Lopt as neighbours in a sort of godly retirement village while Sam would be going to live with Loki again so that he wouldn’t be alone in his new life.

Ermis was grinning at him and held out his arms invitingly, Sam stepped into them and accepted the hug. “You have fun now, Sam. Prank Loki with all you’ve got or you’ll never hear the end of it.”

Sam laughed and held his mentor tighter, “I will, Hermes.”

“Now kid, you gotta remember. I’m not Hermes, you are.”

“You’ll always be Hermes to me.”

Ermis’ eyes softened as he cupped Sam’s face in his hands, “And you’ll be Sam to me. You ever need anything, come find me and I’ll do my best to help.”

Nodding, Sam hugged his best friend and teacher again before stepping back and allowing Loki to say goodbye to Ermis. Lopt stood next to Sam, watching the two old friends embrace, “I’ll look after him for you.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem,” Lopt shrugged, “just do me a favour and keep an eye on Loki? He can be a bit of an idiot sometimes. Such as not skedaddling when a hunter family is in town and then taking in a hunter child. Turned out great this time, but it could also have been a disaster which I’m sure you’re aware of.”

Sam had to agree. What if he hadn’t loved spending time with the cheeky doctor that called himself Tricks? What if he had listened to his father and thought all supernatural things were evil and tried to kill Loki when he found out who Dr Tricks really was? What if his father had come back to the hospital and found that Sam was in the care of a trickster?

So many things could have gone wrong and he was thankful that they had turned out the way they had. The chances of him being hurt enough by a werewolf to require a hospital and not be dead were slim but the chances of him going to a hospital with a friendly (if you weren’t a dick) trickster were even less. He would be ten years old now and lost in the world if Loki hadn’t picked him up and carried him home.

When the retired gods had left and it was just Loki and the new Hermes, Loki flung his arm around Sam’s waist. “Ready to go home, Sammy?”

Thinking back to the room that Loki had created for him with Loki right next door should he need him, the living room just outside that led into the kitchen and the rounded library, Sam grinned. He had missed his room at Loki’s place. It was the first place he remembered staying in for longer than two months.

“Definitely.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Of course, tricksters also moved around the countryside as they searched out people they felt were not all that pleasant. After a town had had its dick population brought down, the trickster would move on to the next highest population on their radar. But, then again, a trickster’s life wasn’t all about punishing those that didn’t know anything about common decency to other beings. There was also sugar to be consumed and places to see and things to do. While Loki and Sam had done a lot in the year before Sam had begun his training, they hadn’t done everything. Besides, Sam had been a kid when last he had been on the Earth for any length of time and he wanted to see the world as it was to him now.

He wanted to see the things that Loki hadn’t let him see the last time they had explored the planet. He wanted to go to places that had been deemed too risky/scary/horrid for an eight to nine-year-old child to experience. So began the slow crawl around the world. They estimated they’d spend about a month in each place, depending on whether they liked it or not. Due to the teleportation trickster power they both possessed, they would not be going in a logical order and would instead jump around to whatever place took their fancy.

That was okay, they had eternity so why not spend that eternity slowly exploring the planet and all that it could offer whilst also ruining the days of those humans that were absolutely rubbish at being humans? Sam had decided that he would get a job in the various towns they visited, a different job in every town.

At the moment they were in Lake Manitoc and he was a store clerk for a gas station. It was rather mind-numbing work. People come in, tell him their pump number and he gets the information for how much they need to pay before asking them to pay it. Then he had to ask them if they wanted a receipt and wish them a good day.

There were the occasional people that came in and broke up the monotony. These people were either complete idiots, complete jerks (who he filed away for future reference) or young children/teenagers coming in with their parents or older siblings. It was really quite interesting seeing how adept some children were at manipulating their parents into getting them a sweet while the parent tried to only get the fuel they wanted.

Of course, Sam didn’t help matters with the children wanting sweets seeing as he nearly always had something sugary nearby or in his mouth. It was a by-product of becoming a trickster. He always had a vague craving for something sweet and if he didn’t listen to that for eight hours (he had timed it) that slight craving turned into full-blown cravings that could only be satisfied by the sweetest of sweet things.

Loki had called him mad for doing such an experiment that deprived him of sugar for so long but Sam had merely stuck out a sugary tongue at the other god. He liked knowing the limits a trickster could go to without having that which made them recognisable to hunters. It was very handy information to know when a hunter was in town. You didn’t want to be caught with a hoard of candy while strange things were going on. Painting a target on his back was not something Sam wanted to do.

His current favourite snack of choice was a gum that Loki had created after reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and deciding that Willy Wonka’s three course meal gum was pretty awesome. Of course, being a trickster, Loki didn’t make it with tomato soup followed by roast beef followed by blueberry pie. Instead it was apple crumble then chocolate ice cream and then cotton candy. There was nothing at all savoury to be found in the Loki and Hermes abode.

Somehow, Sam had retained his liking for fruit and that was the only thing in their home that was even remotely healthy. Although, Loki insisted that the Capri Sun products they had were healthy as they had fruit juice in them. Sam merely shook his head when this topic was brought up and generally walked away with an apple in hand.

The both of them had become favourites of the children in Lake Manitoc and most of the parents didn’t mind it when the children ran up to either one of them when they encountered them outside. Loki and Sam had been in the town for long enough and were friendly enough that they had been accepted fully by the community. In fact, Loki was the one to which most of the children were entrusted to when their parents wanted a break.

Sam and Loki were currently sitting at the edge of the lake and watching the young Sophie Carlton being taught how to swim by her mother. They were there for moral support and to be the six-year-old’s cheer squad as she learned the art of swimming. It was their last day in Lake Manitoc, there were still secrets to be uncovered there but they had decided to move on and leave those secrets to uncover themselves.

Sophie came out of the lake and ran over to Loki who held out a towel for her to wrap herself in before she jumped on him. Loki laughed at her exuberance and hugged her back as Melinda also came out of the lake and accepted the towel Sam offered. “She’s going to miss you.”

Sam smiled at her, “We’ll miss her as well.”

“I expect to see you at the barbeque tonight,” she mock-glared at him sternly and he raised his hands in surrender.

“We’ll be there, just make sure that there’s enough sugar for Loki.”

Melinda laughed, looking over at the man who was currently helping her daughter dry off by engaging in a game of chase. “How you two eat so much sugar and still remain so slim, I will never know.”

“It’s all part of our special charm.”

Sam yelped as Melinda punched him lightly and then started running away from the sly grin she was now wearing. This inevitably meant that Sam and Melinda joined Loki and Sophie in their game of chase. Once the swimming duo had dried off and Sophie had managed to capture Loki, they headed off to the Barr house where the farewell barbeque was being held.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look! I managed to wrangle this chapter into being for my usual update time!
> 
> Ermis = modern Greek version of Hermes


	6. A Winchester Interlude

Dean Winchester had spent most of his life travelling around the countryside with his father as they hunted down the monsters that went bump in the night. When he had been four years old, his mother had been killed by a yellow-eyed demon. Ever since then, the Winchester family had been on the road, tracking down any clue they could find as to where this demon had disappeared to.

Right now, there were only two members of the Winchester family travelling together but Dean still remembered his younger brother, Sam. While John Winchester spent all of his energy searching for and killing monsters, Dean Winchester divided his energy into hunting monsters and hunting for Sammy.

He had been twelve when Sam had been hurt by a werewolf and had to stay in a hospital for a few weeks. Their father had decided to spend those few weeks hunting around the neighbouring towns instead of staying put and had dragged Dean with him. Only, when the time came that Sam would have been able to be discharged from the hospital, John hadn’t wanted to go back and fetch him. That was when Dean learned that their father hated Sam and considered his baby brother a weakling that would never amount to anything.

Nine years had passed since Dean had seen his little brother. The little brother he had been tasked to protect by his father when the man when out on hunts. He had looked after Sammy as much as he could, even stole some chick’s Christmas presents one year to try and convince Sam that their dad had been back for long enough to drop off presents but had to go out again.

Thinking of that morning, Dean fiddled with the amulet resting on his chest. It had been intended for their father but when he hadn’t shown up on Christmas, Sam had decided that Dean should have it instead. The amulet was the only thing he still had of his brother apart from memories. His father never spoke of his youngest son and often acted as though he had never existed.

That didn’t stop Dean from searching in every town they passed through for any sign of his missing brother. When they had inevitably ended up in the same town that Sam had been abandoned in, his search had increased dramatically. If he was going to find his brother, the place he had been in when he was eight-years-old seemed like a good bet. Dean even hacked into the hospital records and searched for Sam there.

He couldn’t believe it when there was no mention of a Trippen anywhere in the files. He was sure that was the name his father had used when Sam had been injured, someone had even recognised John and called out ‘Mr Trippen’. So why wasn’t Sam listed as a patient in the records? Had someone erased his brother’s stay? Had there been another monster in the town that they had left the youngest of them vulnerable to?

Dean didn’t know and it made him worry. He believed that Sam was still alive, was sure that he would have felt it if his younger brother had died. But he didn’t _know_ and that was the worst feeling he had ever encountered. And his father didn’t even care!

There was a knock on the Impala window and Dean jumped as the sound jolted him out of his thoughts. His father stood there, jerking his head when Dean looked at him and Dean sighed. Digging out the fake FBI ID from the glove compartment, he stepped out of the classic car and approached the house of the latest victim of whatever monster was in town with his father.

The search for Sam would continue as it had for the past nine years, a little bit here and there whenever his father wasn’t dragging him around on hunts. Stopping by at libraries and searching for any information on young boys who had been found by themselves around the time Sam was likely to have left the hospital. As the years went by, Dean’s search ground to a halt as he kept reading the same things over and over again, but he never gave up hope. Somehow, he would find his brother. Somehow, he would let Sam know that he hadn’t been forgotten about all those years ago.

Dean would bring Sam home, that much he knew. Even if home was a car that journeyed through America and never stopped in one place for too long, it was better than being alone and thinking your entire family had either left you behind or died. One thought hovered in the back of his mind throughout his searching no matter how hard he tried to push it away. Would Sam remember him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short chapter this time to show a bit of what Dean is going through. However I do have some good news and some bad news. I've written the next few chapters, yay! That's the good news.   
> The bad news (it's kinda also good news for me because I absolutely love it) is that I've made the future more heartbreaking than the original version. If you've read the original, you know what's coming (vaguely, it's changed a bit). Be warned. There is sadness (but not for another two chapters).


	7. Tricks goes to University

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheeky middle of the week update seeing as the last chapter was super short. Enjoy the happiness while you can! (evil chuckling)

The year was 2006 and the two tricksters were still circling around the globe. They had gone out of America for a while to travel other countries such as Belgium and India but had returned to the place of Sam’s birth recently. They were living in a town called Springfield in Ohio currently and Sam had convinced Loki to have a job several towns ago, so they were both working.

Loki had become a janitor at the local university, finding it ironic that he was cleaning up the mess of those who attended while he also cleaned up the jerk population of Springfield. Sam worked at a bar and spent his nights humming sympathetically while customers drank their woes away. He was also gathering information, drunkards were very good sources when one wanted to find out who the biggest jackass in town was.

As such, Hermes of Greece, previously Samuel Winchester and still known as Sam to his friends or new acquaintances, was pouring drinks and fending off interested parties at a bar. He lived in a small flat with his lover, Loki (of Asgard). He was kind to those in need and stern to those who needed to learn when they were overstepping the line.

His co-workers tolerated the various pranks he couldn’t help but pull and loved the new creations he came up with. One such creation – the Purple Nurple – had become such a hit when it was in its trial period that it became a regular drink offered. It was almost pure sugar along with rum, orange liqueur, blue curacao liqueur and cranberry juice and definitely provided the buzz patrons were generally after when they entered an establishment that sold alcohol.

Every morning after a shift he would return to the flat he shared with Loki and snuggle with his lover as they discussed their days or worked out who would be the ideal target for their brand of justice. They hadn’t yet dealt out any just desserts as they didn’t want to cause too much suspicion on the two newcomers to town. First, they had to scope out the population, integrate themselves with a few groups and make sure they were the farthest thing from anyone’s minds when the punishments started.

“And then there’s this rumour in college that Professor Cox hits on some of his female students. My girlfriend said that he hit on her and was really creepy. Who does that? He’s like, a hundred or something!” The college kid that slurred all of that out then proceeded to pass out on the counter and drool attractively in front of Sam.

Sam sighed, lifted the kid’s head slightly and slipped a napkin under it so as to catch most of the drool. Then he quickly rifled through the pockets of the drool-monster and fished out a phone. Searching through the contacts he selected the one called _Hot Stuff_ and waited patiently for what he assumed was the kid’s girlfriend to answer.

Telling her what had happened to her boyfriend, he listened as she said she would be by to pick him up and then went back to work. As he did not want to be cleaning the bench of drool, he also occasionally replaced the napkin under the boy’s chin with a fresh one. When an exasperated young female walked into the bar and started searching with her eyes, Sam motioned towards drool-monster and she sighed when she saw him passed out.

She stepped outside for a bit and came back with another girl, nodding a thank you towards Sam as they picked the kid up. The two of them made their way out of the bar, supporting the college kid’s weight together as they dragged him out. The rest of the night was spent topping up glasses and chatting with his co-workers.

Arriving home, Sam was immediately assaulted as he generally was by both Loki and the dog they now owned. Arms full of Jack Russell Terrier and pinned to a single spot by clingy Norse god, Sam grinned and placed a kiss on both heads. This was the tradition when Sam returned from the bar and it was one they all loved. Eventually, Sam was allowed to move but only as far as the couch where he was firmly sat down with a dog to keep him in place while Loki went about preparing the hot chocolate.

It was time to plot the downfall of one of Springfield’s citizens. “Learn anything interesting tonight, Samko?”

“I did, in fact.” Knowing how much Loki would hate him for it, Sam busied himself with drinking the hot chocolate he had been handed with no intentions to continue until prompted. Loki waited patiently for about ten seconds before huffing and demanding he continue. “It would seem we have a lecherous professor in town.”

A slow grin spread over Loki’s face. He loved knocking down those who took advantage of others a notch. “Darling Sambo, you do know how to spoil a trickster. What name does this poor misguided soul go by?”

“Arthur Cox, author of a book titled _Modern Morality – Examining Societal Views and Belief Systems_.”

“Well then, perhaps we should show him that belief in the weird and wacky isn’t as crazy as some may think.”

“Remember to be reasonably subtle, Loki, it is our first target here and we don’t want to draw any attention to ourselves.”

Loki nodded in agreement and they started to plan just how to deal with Professor Arthur Cox. He would be dying, that much they knew. The both of them decided that those people like the good old professor were generally beyond a harmless prank to get them to stop their wicked ways. The fact that killing them also generally freed those they had harmed from an endless nightmare was an added bonus.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Not even two days after their last hunt had finished, John and Dean Winchester were in the 1967 Chevrolet Impala and driving towards the next possible monster. A professor had taken a swan dive out of his office window in the middle of the night with no clear reason why and there was a rumour that the university was haunted.

After that had been heard by dedicated hunter John Winchester, he had packed up his bags and son before driving off in the direction of the hunt. The tip had come from an old family friend by the name of Bobby Singer, an older man who acted as a resource and alias-confirmer for the hunter population. Arriving in Springfield, Ohio after an eight-hour drive, the first thing the hunter duo did was book a room at the nearest motel and then head out to the local bar.

There was nothing that could be done in regards to the possible hunt in the town at such a late hour except perhaps gather some information from the local drunks about any town legends. With the added bonus of beer. The bar was packed when they stepped inside, full of chatting and laughing college kids and the occasional old timer that hadn’t yet headed home.

In front of them was a high bench with very few stools available. As one, they moved towards the pair that were still free and claimed them as their own. The lady tending the bar grinned at them and asked, “What’ll it be?”

“Whatever’s good,” John replied, and she grinned even more.

“Well, we have the town special, the Purple Nurple, created by our very own Sam or we’ve got some pale ale on tap if that’s more your style.”

Refusing to even think about drinking something with the name _Purple Nurple_ , John ordered two pale ales and set to watching the other patrons. Dean’s attention – as it always was – was drawn to trying to see if he could find the Sam she had mentioned and compare him to the memory of his missing brother.

Every time someone mentioned the name Sam, had the name Sam or said something related in any way, he couldn’t help but think of his brother and try to find him. It was how he had spent the last twelve years of his life and now he had no control over it. It was an instinctual reaction to the name Sam or any variation of it.

Locating another bartender further down, Dean stared at the man and mentally made the same comparisons he had been making for years with so many different men. While the hair colour was the same, Dean couldn’t be sure. The man wasn’t facing him and he didn’t have a clear look at his face, plus he was a giant and Sammy had always been short. Heck, Dean didn’t even know if the guy was the Sam the lady had been talking about!

Two glasses being placed on the bench in front of them jolted the two Winchesters out of their gazing and they nodded in thanks to the lady who had served them. She grinned and walked down a few seats to the waving hand that was asking for her attention. With drinks in hand, the hunters continued their previous activities.

The man Dean was observing looked up and seeing Dean watching him, nodded in acknowledgement. He wrapped up the conversation he was having with the man on the other side of the bench and walked over to where Dean was sitting. “Can I help you?”

Dean just stared at him. This man was almost exactly what he imagined Sam would look like if he grew older. Apart from the height, of course. Besides him, his father elbowed him none too subtly and jerked his head towards the expectant look on the bartender’s face. “Uh, yeah. Do you have any food here?”

The man grinned, “Course we do, what are you looking for?”

“Pie?” Dean shrugged. Sure it wasn’t a great dinner but he was used to not having normal meals due to the amount of travelling he did.

“Any specific flavour? We have cherry, pumpkin and apple.”

“I’ll have the apple,” the man nodded and noted it down on a pad he pulled out of his pocket.

He then turned to John and asked, “Anything for you?”

John considered the question, “Got any burgers in that kitchen of yours?”

“You bet. Veggie, The Lot, Cheese or a combination of all three?”

‘The Lot.”

The order was jotted down and the page torn off as the man said, “It’ll be with you shortly,” walking to where they could see a kitchen separated from the bar by a half bench.

As they waited for their food, John and Dean drank their drinks and continued watching the patrons. Now there was a bit more purpose to their actions as they sought out any people they thought might be able to tell them more about the professor who had died or the haunting rumour.

They would not approach anyone tonight, but they would most likely return tomorrow if they still needed information and that was when they would mingle for information. Soon enough the food arrived and they dug in with glee. A day on the road was not the place to find good food so they were glad for a proper(ish) meal.

After they were sated and the night seemed to become more about the college kids still inhabiting the bar, the two hunters set off in the direction of the motel they had booked earlier in the night. It was a quiet night outside of the still packed bar and the brisk air invigorated them, removing the faint trace of a buzz they had received from the alcohol they had partaken in.

As soon as they arrived at their room, the both of them got ready for sleep and collapsed on their beds. It had been a long day of driving and they both knew that tomorrow would be a long day of running around town trying to find and follow various clues. That was a hunter’s life and they had lived it for so long that they couldn’t imagine anything else.

As Dean drifted off, he couldn’t get the image of the male bartender out of his mind. The man bore a remarkable resemblance to his missing brother, but he had been down that path so many times he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go down it again. On the other hand, what if this man actually _was_ his Sammy and he was too scared to find out?

His dreams were not pleasant that night. Full of thoughts of a scared and lost Sam that didn’t know where he was or where his father and brother were. Dean could do nothing but stand to the side as he watched his little brother be lost in a big town, was this what his brother had been through?

Waking up in the morning was a relief to get away from the reminders of what might, and probable had, happened to the little brother he had sworn to protect. His mind was made up, he wouldn’t let his fear of being wrong stop him from trying to find Sam. It was his job as big brother to look after his younger brother and in order to do that, he had to find him first.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

The newcomers were back again tonight and Sam’s eyes kept wandering over to them. They were so familiar in a way that he didn’t quite understand. He knew them. Or had known them. A long time ago, before Loki. He just couldn’t figure out _how_ he knew them, which wasn’t too strange seeing as over a thousand years had passed since he would have encountered anyone he had known when he was young Samuel Winchester.

It bugged him that they were here, especially seeing as if he had known them when he was young, there was a very good chance that they were hunters. Which meant that the death of dear old Professor Cox had drawn them here. Meaning he and Loki had to be very careful in any future tricks they pulled while these two were in town.

The two men were currently doing the rounds around the bar, asking careful questions about the rumours of the university being haunted and expressing sympathies for the death of such an esteemed member of their society. Watching them, Sam was almost sure that they were hunters and when the younger one straight out asked _him_ about any local legends when he dropped off a beer, he was sure of it. There were hunters in Springfield and they would soon be hunting for him and Loki.

He had to suppress his laughter when he was carefully pressed for information about whatever ghoulie was in the town by the young hunter. If only the other knew that he was asking one of the supernatural creatures he was currently trying to track down about the supernatural creature that was staying in town. Sam was sure he’d be dead before the night was over.

Still, he would need to warn Loki that there were hunters about. There was no need to be reckless. And besides, hunters were some of the greatest people to play some tricks on. Not only were most of them stuck-up jerks that thought themselves heroes of the world, they also became adorably paranoid when they encountered the various tricks a trickster could play on them.

Amy, seeing the grin on his face as he started plotting what he and Loki could do to the two hunters shuddered. “Please tell me you’re thinking of another Purple Nurple and not a great big prank that is going to make me regret coming in to work on whatever day you play it?”

Sam just grinned at her, “Would I do that, Amy?”

“Yes, Sam. You would. You and your lover are absolute menaces.”

Giving that she grinned at him as she said this, Sam figured she didn’t mind too much. “You know you love it, we give you inspiration for your own pranks, after all.”

Amy couldn’t deny that. Before the two had moved into Springfield, she had been the resident prankster and had been rather proud of her title. When Sam had started working at the bar and shown his pranking side, she had bowed gracefully out of the way for him to take the throne whilst also begging him to teach her his ways.

Neither of them noticed the choking man who had been near enough to hear their conversation and been unfortunate enough to take a drink right when Amy had said Sam’s name.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Once the traditional limpeting of Sam had been performed and the couch had been once more claimed by the three inhabitants of their small apartment, Loki learned of the fact that hunters were now in town.

“So, I saw some new people at the bar last night and tonight. Very rugged looking, and rather curious about the death of our dear professor. Even going so far as saying they’re from a newspaper and writing an article. Though what sensible journalist asks about cold spots, local legends and whether or not there was any truth to the legend of a haunting at the university where the professor died, I wouldn’t know.”

Loki raised an eyebrow, “So what you’re saying is, there are hunters sniffing about.”

“That would be correct. Want to mess with them?”

“Oh Sammy, you know I do. What are they like?”

Sam grinned, “ _Very_ masculine. I believe one of them shuddered when they heard about my Purple Nurple, at least according to Amy.”

“Then I would assume that they wouldn’t appreciate it if several of their belongings became rather more feminine. Anything else?”

“The younger one keeps staring at me, so he could be a closeted gay but I’m not really sure. He doesn’t seem to be looking me over, just staring with a really concentrated look on his face.”

Loki tightened his loose grip on Sam and brought them even closer together as they sprawled on the couch and snuggled. “Either way, he can’t have you. You’re mine.”

Sam rolled his eyes fondly, “You know I am, Loki. The same could be said for you, after all.”

Loki nodded satisfied, “I’ll need to do some more research into the hunters before we really start messing with their minds.”

“Tomorrow,” Sam said, ensuring that Loki couldn’t go anywhere by laying half on top of him.

“Tomorrow,” Loki agreed, running his hands through Sam’s hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Purple Nurple is an actual drink consisting of the ingredients I listed apart from the sugar. It probably existed long before Sam became a drinks maker but I like the idea of Sam creating it (with sugar, he is a trickster) so that's what I went with.


	8. Tricks and Winchester

The college was silent as they were lead into the building by one of the janitors who worked there. It was late at night and instead of going to the bar and chatting with the locals, the two visiting hunters had instead decided to visit the place of the professor’s death. They had contacted the school earlier claiming to be from an electrical company that was concerned about some faulty wiring and the school had set up a time for them to be allowed into the building that very night.

The janitor grinned at them as they asked all their questions such as cold spots and whether or not the building had a floor six and thus a room with the number 669. The man was quite informative, letting them know of the rumours of the deceased professor and his habits of having multiple young girls in his office.

He also turned out to be the person who found the professor when the man had taken a nosedive out of his office window. The janitor had been locking up after his shift and had just been leaving when the professor died on the steps. He didn’t seem too torn up about it and they could see that he thought the worst of the man and his _habits_.

With the new information and lack of EMF readings, the two hunters thanked the janitor and left, not noticing as the man watched them get into the Impala and drive off with a strange expression looking vaguely like concern on his face. They also didn’t see the man vanish with a snap of his fingers.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Sam looked up as Loki appeared in the living room. The book he had been reading was immediately abandoned when he saw the expression his lover was wearing. “Loki? What’s wrong, love?”

Loki looked up at him with wide eyes as Sam rubbed a soothing hand up and down his back. He opened his mouth to say something but shut it again, apparently unable to speak about what was worrying him. Sam gently guided him to the couch and moved quickly to the kitchen after dumping Mischief the dog on Loki’s lap for comfort.

Within a few moments, hot chocolate was made and being handed over to Loki as Sam clambered onto the couch and settled himself behind Loki, encasing the other god in a warm hug. They remained there while Loki steadied himself. Taking sips of hot chocolate and running his hands over Mischief as Sam ran his own hands through Loki’s hair, the Norse god slowly let himself relax after the shock of seeing two people he honestly thought he would never see again.

Of course they had the rotten luck of attracting the attention of the two hunters that had once been Sam’s family. He had thought them somewhat familiar when he had given them the tour of the university, but it was the car that had jolted his memory. That car was unmistakable and the last time he had seen it was when he had a distraught young Sam Winchester in his arms after his father had declared him weak. After his own family had abandoned him.

Sighing deeply, Loki set aside the now-empty mug and cuddled closer to Sam. He needed the reassurance that the other man was here, and he had a feeling that soon enough it would Sam that needed comfort as his past came stumbling into his present.

“I saw the hunters today,” he began, and Sam inhaled a sharp breath.

“They didn’t realise you were a trickster, did they?”

“No, nothing like that.” Loki snuggled even closer and took a deep breath, “I recognised them. I know who they are and Sam, I’m so sorry.”

“What, Loki? What are you sorry about? They’re just hunters, aren’t they?”

Loki shook his head, “No. They’re Winchesters. John and Dean Winchester. Your family.”

Behind him, Sam was still. The hand that had been running through Loki’s hair completely frozen as the new information penetrated Sam’s brain. He had never even thought that the two who seemed so familiar would be his family. It had never occurred to him that the hunters might be much closer to him than he had first assumed.

“No,” he breathed. “They can’t… It’s not possible. Are you absolutely sure, Loki?”

Loki turned around in Sam’s arms and cupped his face in his hands, nodding grimly. “There is no doubt in my mind that the two hunters currently in Springfield and hunting us are John and Dean Winchester.”

A choked sob broke out of Sam as he closed his eyes and bowed his head. He wasn’t ready to deal with this, would never be ready. Yes, he had found a father-figure in Hermes and actually had another father in Zeus even if the king of Olympus never acted very fatherly. Yes, he had a close relationship with his sister Artemis and would always have that sibling relationship with her.

He had a new family now, one only made possible because Loki had taken him in and Hermes had wanted to retire. But also made possible because his blood family hadn’t wanted him. Had left him in a hospital all alone when he was only eight-years-old. Still a child in anyone’s eyes even if he had been forced to grow quickly mentally as he was dragged into a world of monsters.

That was a hurt that no one had been able to heal, hidden away deep in Sam’s mind. He had forced himself not to dwell on it and not even Hermes or Loki had been able to bring it out of Sam. The Winchester family was in town and hunting him and his lover without even knowing who it was they were hunting.

He felt Loki’s arms encircle him and heard the soft reassuring words he whispered but it was all background. He was drowning in a tidal wave of memories that he could do nothing to stop. Sam wasn’t even aware of the tears that had started falling from his eyes as every time his father had hurt him came flooding back.

He barely registered Mischief’s whining as the dog headbutted him to try and give comfort. Didn’t notice when the couch had turned into a bed and Loki had tucked them both in without letting go of Sam. All he was aware of were his own thoughts as he realised that an unwanted family reunion was bound to happen. It had already happened, only none of them had realised who they had interacted with those nights at the bar.

Loki sighed as he watched the shut-down Sam stare into space. He had known this would hit his lover hard but seeing the normally upbeat Sammy so completely shut-off from the world was hard. It was almost as hard or even harder than it had been watching his own family tear itself apart with fighting. He had fled that time, running away from the conflict but he couldn’t do that now.

No way was he going to leave his Sam alone while he dealt with all the suppressed emotions now surfacing. Snuggling closer to the trickster he had fallen in love with, Loki whispered, “It’ll be okay Sam, we’ll get through this together.”

That was how they stayed, cuddled close on the bed that had once been the couch with Mischief laying on Sam’s chest. No more words were spoken as Sam’s two companions let him come to terms with his blood family unexpectedly coming back into his life.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“I don’t know if I can do this, Lo.” Sam admitted softly after he had dragged himself out of his stupor.

Loki hummed, “We could always leave. There’s no reason why we can’t just move on to another town on the other side of the world.”

“I don’t know if I can do that either. They’re still my family and I…” Sam sighed heavily, “I want to know if Dad misses me, if he regrets leaving me behind. I never thought I’d see him again and now…”

“Now you can’t help but wonder.”

“Yeah.”

“Then we take it slow. You keep going into work and if they’re there and you can’t take it, you come home straight away. No searching them out until you’re ready.”

Sam nodded, “Thanks, Loki.”

“Any time. I’m always here for you, Samaru.”

“I know.”

Sam closed his eyes and sighed, not ready to face his blood family and also not ready to just up and leave them behind without knowing if his father still hated him. He knew, of course, that if John Winchester discovered what his youngest son now was he would hunt Sam down and kill him. If it’s supernatural, it dies, after all.

He felt Loki shift and glanced at him as he placed a kiss on Sam’s forehead before getting up and placing Sam’s arms around Mischief. “I’ll be back, Sammikins, just gotta do something.”

“Don’t kill them,” Sam mumbled. He knew the look he had seen in Loki’s eyes. It was the look that signified he was pissed at someone and going to make sure they knew about it. It was the look he had sported when some jerk had refused to take no for an answer and kept badgering Sam.

Loki was in protective payback mode and while Sam could probably calm him down, he didn’t particularly feel the need to. Loki simply smoothed his hair back and grinned in answer to Sam’s request. After he snapped away, Sam sighed and curled up around the dog as his thoughts once more turned inwards.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Loki was silent and unseen as he watched the two people who had hurt Sam more than anyone else. The hunters were going through old newspapers and sites of doubtful authority in regards to legends surrounding the Springfield area. He knew that they wouldn’t find anything in any records, the rumour of a haunting was just that; a rumour.

As amusing as it was to see them tear their hair out when they struggled to find anything that could even remotely help them, it wasn’t enough to calm the raging storm inside of him. There were few things that could make Loki truly angry, one of those things was a hurt Sam. Anyone or anything that hurt _his_ Sammikins would quickly feel the wrath of a pagan god with maybe a touch of his past life in there as well. Simply because it was family that had hurt Sam didn’t mean they were safe. In fact, it probably meant that they were worse off than it they had been random strangers who had inadvertently caused pain to his lover.

Narrowing his eyes at the oldest of them, he wondered if he did miss his other son or if he had simply erased the fact he had had another child from his mind. Watching the interactions between the man and his remaining son, Loki couldn’t help but be glad that Sam had ended up with him. Living with his father would have been torture for the free and independent spirit that Sam was. Following orders would not suit the other trickster, just like it didn’t suit the others in existence.

Dean Winchester seemed to have accepted that his father would be more like a drill sergeant than a father and followed orders like a well-trained dog. Knowing that they adored the car they travelled the States in from what a young Sam had been able to tell him about the two Winchester men, Loki left them to their research and instead worked on completely trashing the car they both valued so highly.

Tyres were slashed with quick succession by a silver blade he rarely brought out and made so that there was no chance at all of repair. The boys would have to get new tyres if they wanted to be driving any time soon or leave the car in Springfield. Scratch marks from a key were drawn onto the body and graffiti was sprayed on the sides and hood of the car (pink, just to insult their highly valued masculinity). Special semi-permanent trickster paint was used for this job so that they would have to work very hard to get rid of the rude words and crass drawings from their beloved car.

Seeing the stash in the boot of the Impala, Loki rose an eyebrow. These boys were ready for almost anything, it would seem. Well, except Loki. Sniggering to himself, Loki swapped out the salt for pure sugar that would do absolutely nothing to deter a ghost or other spirit. Due to him being an impatient trickster, Loki then caused a disturbance that was sure to get the two researching men outside.

They came running, hands ready to draw guns as they burst out of the door to their motel room. They stopped stock still as the scene in front of them registered. There was nothing in the parking lot to explain the loud noises they had heard but there _was_ a defiled Impala covered in scratches, lurid pink paint with slashed tyres.

As one, they rushed over to the car and started inspecting it, quite loudly expressing their outrage at whoever had decided to play with it. Loki burst into silent laughter as he watched Dean croon to the car and promise to fix her up, running his hands up and down the length of the car in what would be a soothing gesture if the car was animate.

Yes, they had definitely paid for showing up out of nowhere and sending Sam spiralling into old memories. There would be more to come but this was a good starting place. Anger assuaged for the moment, Loki headed back to Sam and sighed softly when he saw the position the other trickster had taken.

Slipping under the conjured covers, Loki curled around Sam as Sam had curled around Mischief. It was likely to take some time before Sam healed from the old wound that had just been torn open and Loki would be there to help whenever and however he could.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

It was decided that the Winchesters would be treated as any other hunter that happened upon them. Tricks would be played upon the duo so that they turned on one another and spent so much time fighting the other that they would forget about finding the monster of the week they were hunting. Sam went to work when he had shifts, as did Loki. They plotted and planned and played tricks without remorse. Hunters had never before stopped them from doing their job and having a bit of fun. In fact, hunters generally added to the fun.

It was only because these hunters had once been part of Sam’s family that the idea to retreat had been brought up and discarded. Instead, they focused their attentions on a particular college kid that decided extreme hazing was fun. As he was a kid, death was off the cards. Kids could change their ways easily enough if given the right incentive and an alien abduction was practically perfect in every way.

It was Sam’s turn to play and he grinned as the kid tried to run from the conjured UFO. He had needed this after the emotional upheaval of the last few days. There was no better cure for upset emotions and uncertainty than a bit of mischief and mayhem, except perhaps hugs from Loki and a hot chocolate.

Light finally encircled Curtis as the kid stopped running and Sam snapped his fingers to transport the kid to the UFO where some very eager aliens were waiting for him. They would have some fun, do some probing as all legends about aliens said they did. And then, because Sam took great joy in a horrible experience for horrible people and had snuck into the kid’s nightmares, one of them would force the kid to slow dance with it.

The whole thing was over before dawn and the kid back in bed huddled under his covers like the scared boy he now was. Sam nodded in satisfaction, mission complete. He doubted Curtis would be hazing anyone again anytime soon. With a snap, he returned to Loki and snuggled against the one constant that had been with him throughout it all.

“Have fun, love?”

Sam nodded against Loki’s chest, “Yeah, thanks Lo.”

“You have nothing to thank me for,” Loki kissed the top of his head and they lapsed into silence.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Sam grinned as he heard Curtis quietly relay his tale to the two hunters that were interrogating him whilst drowning himself in alcohol. The kid had been a reasonable drinker before but ever since the abduction, his intake had skyrocketed. The kid’s already soft and cracking voice turned hysterical when he finally told the listening duo about his romantic dance with an alien.  He would probably never be able to listen to that song again, Sam reflected. Or slow dance.

For the most part, he ignored the two he now knew to be his father and brother. That didn’t stop him from glancing over occasionally and wondering what it would have been like to stay with them. He watched Dean watch him and wondered if his brother might be feeling the same sense of familiarity he himself had felt upon meeting the two again.

It didn’t matter though, at least that was what he told himself. When he had been a young boy he had known that Dad’s word was law and Dean knew that too. If John Winchester still hated him (which he would, just on principle of him being supernatural) then so would Dean Winchester. John Winchester would have taught his son well and his brother was no doubt used to following orders without question.

After all, without Sam there, there would have been nothing to distract him from raising the perfect hunter child. Dean had followed their father’s orders even when he was a child and prone to spouts of wilful childishness. Now he was an adult and clearly only knew that which his father thought he should know. Was that what Sam would have been like if his father hadn’t abandoned him?

Sam shook off his thoughts and instead focused on his work. Tonight, the two hunters in his bar would simply be two random customers from out of town that did not matter to him at all. He wondered if Loki had finished up with the research scientist they had picked out a few days ago. Alligator in the sewer, classic.


	9. Tricks Dying

It was over. The Winchester duo had tracked down Loki as the trickster that had been playing with Springfield and messing with them ever since they had arrived in the town. The good thing in Loki’s book was that they hadn’t realised there were _two_ tricksters in town and were only hunting after him. Of course, that might be due to the fact that he had been present for one of the murders and at an unknown location for the other while Sam had been tending the bar on both of those nights.

They had also had the audacity to think him stupid enough to fall for their rubbish acting and rifled through his locker at the university. Which was just _rude_. He said as much to Sam and pouted when the other trickster just laughed at him (even if inside he was ecstatic that he had made Sam laugh, the other had been far too solemn for his liking recently).

He was sure that right now they were preparing the wooden stakes with which to kill him and he _needed_ to speak to Sam before that happened. As if thinking about him summoned the other (which, actually, could be what happened) Sam snapped into existence before him. He didn’t give Loki a chance to speak however, just launched into a panicked dialogue whilst towing Loki down the hall.

“We have to go now, Lo. I was just at the bar where they were discussing their plans to _kill_ you. And then I checked in the Impala and there are stakes in there, dipped in blood and ready to use against you. So we have to leave, there is no way that we are staying now. I am not letting them kill you just because you’re not human.

“Nope, we are going. We are leaving _right now_ , and we will never see them again and they will never, _ever_ know what happened to me. I’ll just become their dark secret that they look back on when they’re dying and wonder what happened to me.”

Loki grabbed Sam’s arm and forced the other man to stop moving. “Sam, listen to me.”

Turning, Sam gave Loki an anguished look, “They’re after you! My own family is trying to kill you!”

“Key word there being _try_ , Sam. They can’t kill me, okay? It’s not possible, not with the tools they have.”

“I saw the stakes, Loki! Did you not hear me? Dipped in blood and ready to use on _you_. We have to go!”

“No. I won’t let you leave without making some sort of peace with your old family. I will _not_ let this fester in your mind for eons. You _will_ meet them, you _will_ let them know what happened because of your father’s actions and if that takes them thinking they killed me then so be it. No matter what it seems like, I _won’t_ be dead.” Loki sighed and pulled Sam closer to him, wrapping him up in a hug as the younger trickster shook with silent sobs of worry and fear.

“I won’t die because they don’t possess the only thing that can kill me. You need an archangel’s blade to kill an archangel and they only have some wooden stakes.”

Sam pulled back slightly and stared at Loki, “What are you saying?”

“You know how you took over from Hermes when he was ready to retire?” Sam nodded and Loki continued, “I did the same thing with Lopt, only I wasn’t human when he took me on as his apprentice. I was the archangel Gabriel running away from a family that was tearing itself apart.”

“Gabriel.” Sam’s voice was dead and Lok- Gabriel nodded slightly. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Loki- No, _Gabriel_ shrugged, “It never came up. I’ve been Loki for so long, it didn’t seem important.”

“You… What do I call you?”

There was confusion in Sam’s voice with a touch of betrayal and it broke Loki’s heart to hear it. He could barely stand to look at Sam when his lover looked at him with such hurt in his eyes. “Whatever you want, same as always. I’m still _me_ , Sam. I’m still the crazy trickster who decided to save a hunter child and then fell in love with that same child years later.”

Sam ripped himself away from his lover as his brain processed the shattering revelation he had been handed. The man in front of him had hidden a giant part of his past for the thousand or so years they had known each other. Sam had known that Loki had been someone before he had become Loki – Lopt was proof that there had been another Loki before him – but he had never imagined his lover to be an _archangel_ of all things.

A door slammed shut further down the corridor and Sam jumped, looking back at the sound fearfully. “They’re here.”

“And we will face them. You know you need to do this.” Loki eyed the distance now between them but said nothing. He hadn’t thought that his previous life as Gabriel the archangel was important information anymore. He was Loki and had been for as long as Sam knew him. Apparently he was wrong.

“Fine,” Sam snapped harshly, vanishing into the shadows of the auditorium they had ended up in during Sam’s attempt to drag _Gabriel_ away from the hunters that wanted to kill him.

The doors slammed open and in came John Winchester, stake at the ready. Loki pushed all thoughts of Sam’s hurt from his mind and rose an eyebrow at him from his position on the small stage. “Well if it isn’t the man from the electrical company. Here to fix some faults, old man?”

“You know I’m not.”

Loki tutted, “Pity, we could have had such fun. Still, there’s more than one way to have some fun. Where’s your eldest, Johnny-boy?”

“You stay away from my son,” John’s grip on the stake tightened as he started slowly descending the stairs that separated him from his target. Loki burst out laughing at his threat.

“A bit late for that, isn’t it? You’ve given me the last twelve years of your life with him and only now are you trying to defend him?”

John stared at the laughing trickster in utter confusion. Twelve years? Had the trickster been following them and messing with Dean without him knowing? Without realising, his eyes flickered over to where he knew Dean was hiding and that was all the trickster needed to see. The door that hid his son snapped open and Dean was revealed.

“That’s better. Now we’re all together. Come on in, Dean-o. There’s plenty of space here, as you can see.”

Dean didn’t get a choice, Loki dragged him in with his power and all the doors shut when the two Winchesters were inside the darkened auditorium. Dean thudded into a chair, dropping his stake as Loki let go of him to once more turn his attention to John.

“I’ll kill you,” the man promised, and Loki smirked.

“I’m sure you’ll try your best.” This time it was his eyes that flicked to another spot. What had caught his attention, John didn’t know, there was nothing in the shadowy corner that he could see. He didn’t see the tall form of his youngest shifting uncertainly or the soft demand in Loki’s eyes when the trickster glanced over.

He didn’t see the determined nod that then prompted Loki’s next words. “I have someone who wants to meet you. Say hello to your son, John Winchester.”

It was only Dean’s pained gasp that made John look to where the trickster had gestured. Standing in the previously empty corner was the bartender that had served them food on their first night in town. He sneered at the trickster, “You clearly know nothing about me, that is not my son.”

“Sammy…” Dean breathed out shakily. He hadn’t stopped staring at what must be his little brother since he had appeared, even taking a few steps towards the other.

“Stop whatever it is you’re thinking, Dean. We won’t fall for any of this things tricks.”

Dean whirled on his father, “Dad, look at him! Can’t you see it’s Sam?”

John froze. Sam? He’d left that boy behind years ago. Had thought that Dean had forgotten about the brother he used to have once he finally stopped asking about him. Sam was dead, there was no way that he could be alive. The boy had been left in a hospital with nowhere to go or anyone to turn to.

With that thought in mind, John snorted, “It’s a trick, Dean. That’s what tricksters do.”

“They also take in little boys whose family has left them.” Came a soft voice from the previously silent man. “They spend their days entertaining boys left in a hospital all alone. They help heal boys from werewolf scratches and take that boy to his family when he’s healed and his family hasn’t come for him.”

That finally made John turn his attention away from the trickster who was just leaning against the wall and smirking. No one should know how Sam got injured, he had told anyone that asked that his youngest had died via possession of a ghost and warned them not to speak to Dean about it. He had known that no one else saw the darkness in the boy that had been there ever since Mary died, he had needed to get that away from his son.

“What are you?”

The being claiming to be Sam shrugged, “Lots of things. Once upon a time, I was your youngest son. Not anymore though, I can see that you still think I’m weak and worthless just as you said over the grave of Winnifred Foran.”

Dean took in a sharp breath at the name and even John had to resist reacting to the information so casually dropped. “You wouldn’t even know I was still alive if L- If I hadn’t wanted to see for myself whether or not you still hated me. And you do, so that’s it.”

“Sam,” Loki pushed himself off the wall and stepped towards the other but stopped at the glare directed towards him.

“That’s it, _Loki_.”

John saw a glimmer of silver in the eyes of his supposed son and that was all he needed to snap him out of his thoughts. Even if the thing was his son, it was supernatural now and if it was supernatural, it died. They had come to this town to do a job and they would do that job, no matter what. He hefted the wooden stake he still held and – taking advantage of the trickster’s distraction – strode forward the final few steps before stabbing the wood straight through the chest of the trickster. There was a choked sound as the trickster fell down, aided by the kick John sent the being’s way. Job complete.

He glanced towards where the vision of an older Sam had been, expecting it to be gone and did a double-take when it was still there. It didn’t move, just stared at the dead body of the trickster in what appeared to be shock. Suddenly, cold eyes snapped up to glare at John.

“How dare you,” came a soft, threatening whisper. With the clearly dead body of Loki in front of him, Sam completely forgot about Loki’s assurances that he could not die. All he saw was the still body of his lover, with no signs of life. He rounded on John and shouted in rage “How _dare_ you!”

John found himself thrown against a wall as Sam stalked towards him. Dean tried to get in between him and the obviously pissed off monster coming for him but was tossed backwards with a silver glance. John tried to retreat but the wall was firm and there was no escaping the rage of the being in front of him.

“You killed the person who gave me a new life. _Killed_ the person who _saved me_ after you left me!” He had drawn closer now, normally hazel eyes turned completely silver as John’s throat was grasped in a strong hand and _squeezed._

“Sam!” The man’s head tilted to look at Dean.

“Yes, brother _dear_?”

“Don’t kill him, you know that’s not what you want.”

“No. What I _want_ is for Loki to be alive. What I _want_ is to inflict upon dear old daddy all the pain he gave me increased tenfold.”

Dean sobbed brokenly, this wasn’t what he’d imagined would happen when he found his brother again. “You can’t.”

“And why can’t I?”

“Because you’re _Sammy_. You’re my little brother and this is not who you are.”

“Correction, this isn’t who I _used_ to be. But then, I wasn’t a trickster when you saw me last, was I?” Sam caught the flinch John gave and smirked at the man. “Oh yes, _Father_ , your son wasn’t just saved by a trickster, he was turned into one as well.”

“Well at least I know how to kill you now, like I should have before.”

Sam’s eyebrow quirked before he let out a gasp of pain and staggered back, his hold on John Winchester loosening completely. Sticking out of his chest was the same stake that had killed Loki just minutes before. Dean sprinted forwards and caught his brother as he fell down, looking up at his killer with what was almost gratitude in his eyes.

“Sammy?” Dean asked softly, drawing Sam’s attention to him. Sam smiled at him briefly before falling limp in his brother’s arms, dead.

Dean sobbed and clutched the dead body of the brother he had just found again tightly to him, wishing it could have been different. A hand landed on his shoulder and he immediately shook it off, unable to look at his father after what the man had done. He just rocked back and forth while holding Sam’s body even tighter, as if he could protect him from the world even though he was already dead.

John sighed, “It’s better this way, Dean. He was a monster and would have needed to be put down sooner or later.”

Dean glared at his father, “You said you would be doing what you should have done, you _wanted_ him to die when you left in the hospital! He was your son! He was _my brother_.”

“He was a _monster_. Even before this, he was a monster. Get up, Dean. We’re leaving.”

“I’m not leaving him again,” Dean stated firmly, not moving one inch.

“Yes, you are. Now get up, that’s an order.”

Too used to following explicit orders from his father and afraid of what would happen if he didn’t obey, Dean ever-so gently placed his brother down on the floor next to the other trickster. Smoothing his hair back, Dean took one last look at his brother’s slack face and stood up. Turning away, he stalked out of the room and headed for the exit with his father following. Leaving the brother he had searched so long and hard for behind.

The tricksters remained there, two bodies lying side by side in the university auditorium. The silence only the dead could provide filled the otherwise empty room as outside the sky darkened into night. Hours after the two hunters had departed, one of them twitched.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry?


	10. Tricks Mourning

Getting stabbed in the chest hurt, Loki decided. And the worst part was that he hadn’t seen it coming. He had been so focused on Sam, begging him silently for forgiveness and to put to rest his grief over his family. Gabriel knew how family grief could come back at any time and knock you down just when you thought it had finally left. He didn’t want that for Sam; Sam’s family would die long before Sam would and Gabriel _could not_ let him regret not talking to them before they died years into the future.

The pure white light mingled with silver flecks that was the physical manifestation of his angelic grace and trickster magic faded from view as it finished healing the hole in his chest. He could feel no other presence in the room and vaguely wondered where Sam was. He shrugged mentally, Sam was probably getting some answers and putting old wounds at rest with his family. Finally, Gabriel opened his eyes.

He was lying face down on the carpet of the university auditorium, he really should have cleaned it more thoroughly than just using a vacuum. From what he could see while he gazed at all the dust motes in the carpet, the sun had set while he was out. Groaning (it may not have killed him but it still _hurt_ ) Gabriel rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling far above him.

He sighed, he would have to find Sam soon, let him know that he was still alive. He desperately hoped that Sam would be able to forgive him for not telling the other about his past. It had truly not seemed important. For so many years, he had been Loki and Sam hadn’t known him as anything else, so why bring up a rotten past that he had been trying (and succeeding) to forget about?

For several minutes, Gabriel didn’t move from his place on the auditorium floor as he stared unblinkingly at the ceiling in front of him. If Sam was with his family, he didn’t want to interrupt and he also didn’t want to make Sam even madder at him then his lover already was. Eventually he shifted and his gaze found the still body of Sam Winchester.

Utter stillness descended onto the archangel turned pagan god as he stared at the unmoving figure of his beloved, unable to comprehend what his eyes were telling him. There was no movement from Sam, not even the slightest lifting of the chest to signify breathing. A wooden stake stuck out of Sam’s chest, horrid and bloody and so _wrong_.

There should not be a stake through Sam Winchester’s chest. There should not be a hole driven through him with a sharp bit of wood. Sam Winchester _should not die_. Sam Winchester was not _allowed_ to die. But he had. And it was all because of Gabriel that he was dead. Gabriel, messenger of the Lord and all-powerful archangel had let his lover die because he was too blinded by his own pain when it came to family.

Hesitantly, limbs shaking, Gabriel crawled over to where Sam was laying. When he arrived by the man’s side, he reached out slowly, needing to touch Sam to make sure that what he was seeing wasn’t some kind of sick joke. And he knew all about sick jokes, he was a trickster after all. They both were, or had been. But his hand made contact with Sam and there was no sign of a trick. And no sign of life, either.

“Sam?” he breathed out shakily. Gazing into the dead eyes of Sam, Gabriel sobbed. They were silver, he had been enraged when he had died. Probably because John had killed Loki just before. “Sammikins?”

He still couldn’t believe it even though the evidence was right in front of him. It was when he closed Sam’s eyes and placed his head on the other trickster’s chest that it finally broke through his disbelief. “ _Sam_!” An explosion of power accompanied the shattered scream and burst throughout the silent university, searching for anyone, anyone at all, to take out its grief on. To try and find some hint of Sam, anywhere.

But there was no one and nothing. It was silent and empty. Unhappy with what it had found, the power spread out further, uncontrollable in its grief and rage. It found every monster – supernatural or not – and removed them from existence. It found every sad person and added their pain to its own. It reached the very depths of hell and the highest reaches of heaven and _cried_.

At the very epicentre of the explosion was a man huddled over the body of another as he sobbed silently. Words spilled out of his mouth in a language not spoken on Earth for many years. The string of Enochian pleas could not be stopped, would not be stopped. There was no point in keeping Gabriel hidden if Gabriel had nothing left to remain hidden for.

As quiet as they were, the words spread out across the nation. The language of angels was heard again in whispers as an archangel wept for his loss. The fallen angels living on Earth heard the cry and took it up as their own. They halted in their daily lives and cried with their sibling that they had forgotten in their fall.

The words echoed into the halls of heaven and rolled down them. A constant litany of _please, no, come back_ had every angel stopping their work and adding their own voices to the cry. The very skies opened up and shed the tears of angels as they felt the heartbreak of their sibling. The cries were spread all over the globe and into the other realms.  Even those in Purgatory heard the cries as they tried desperately to survive the harsh place. The killing, hunting and destruction stopped as the whispers spread over the grey landscape.

In Springfield was a golden light shining out of the university campus that healed everyone who saw it. Those students who had been stressing out about exams relaxed and smiled at the warm light, not thinking twice about _why_ there was a light there, as an angel’s grace tried to heal that which had been stolen from them.

When nothing happened after several hours, when the dead body of Hermes of Greece was still as dead as it had been earlier, the warm light vanished. It was replaced by a cold silver light. The eyes of Gabriel turned into the eyes of Loki, wrathful and vengeful and looking to cause pain. Unable to leave Sam, Loki could not move and turned his anger to the one thing that he could.

The citizens of Springfield all jumped when a great shockwave swept across their home. All the lights went out, windows shattered and where there had once been a university, there was now merely a crater to signify where the mass of buildings was. Inside the crater were two beings, one laid out flat on his back and the other standing furiously over him, silver eyes with flecks of gold darting from side to side trying to find another outlet for his rage.

There was nothing left. Not in his immediate vicinity anyway and he couldn’t leave. He couldn’t bring himself to leave Sam alone in a school auditorium. He had promised that he would never abandon the other. He would not break that promise. It was with a flutter of wings and not a snap that the tricksters left the dark auditorium, one carrying the other with ultimate care.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

In a classic car with replaced tyres sat two people as they drove away from Springfield. One was determinedly watching the road as he drove and the other just as determinedly watching the scenery go by and not looking at his companion. They both felt the shockwave from the destruction of the university and both dismissed it entirely as a side effect of killing a trickster. Which it was, in a way.

The trickster they _had_ killed was survived by his lover and that was never a good thing for the survivor or the killers. They kept driving, eyes focused on the darkened road in front of them. Never noticing the added presence of another in their car as they left the town of their last hunt behind them.

In the back seat of the 1967 Chevrolet Impala sat an angel. He did not know why he was here, only that he had been called to follow the two he now watched with curious eyes. He could feel the presence of devil’s traps all over the car he was in and sensed the many weapons of steel behind him.

He was in the presence of those who called themselves hunters, it would seem. And they had hunted that which belonged to an angel. The angel would follow them until such a time as his sibling was ready to face those who had hunted and killed what had been claimed. There would be very little mercy for these two, he assumed. Or perhaps only for the older one, the youngest appeared to be struggling to hold in tears as he stared out of the window.

It didn’t really matter either way. The angel had a job to do, given to him by someone far his superior and in pain. He would follow orders. Even if he didn’t quite know who had given them.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Mischief whined sadly when Gabriel arrived at the small flat he shared with Sam. _Had_ shared with Sam. The dog nuzzled up to him in question and woofed quietly when Gabriel made no movement. Finally, Gabriel slowly staggered over to the couch that was still a bed and gently settled Sam’s body onto it. Mischief jumped up and it took all of Gabriel’s willpower not to shove the dog away from Sam.

But Mischief had been Sam’s family too and he couldn’t deny the dog a chance to say goodbye. The dog licked Sam’s face softly, bumping his head against the cold cheek and whining when the head merely lolled to one side. He looked up at Gabriel with such confusion in his eyes that the archangel couldn’t take it anymore.

He scooped the dog up and pressed him into his chest. “He’s gone, Mischief. Dead. He’ll never come back.”

Mischief licked his face and then settled in Gabriel’s arms and accepted absent pats, giving comfort the way only an animal could. Gabriel sat on the edge of the couch bed and stared at the still face of his lover. Silent tears streamed down his face, but he made no sound. All his anger had left him and what remained was pure sadness. It would not go away, he knew.

He stayed, staring at Sam for hours and then days before he eventually lay down next to Sam. Mischief never moved from his place in Gabriel’s arms, knowing that the archangel trickster needed him. As Gabriel sat and watched, he retreated into his mind and thought of all the times he and Sam had spent together.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

_Loki watched as Sam laughed, he had just performed a successful trick on one of the citizens of the trickster’s bubble. Hermes nodded approvingly from besides Loki when Sam looked at him for a judging and the apprentice trickster grinned. When Sam’s attention had wandered back to watching his trick play out, Hermes spoke to Loki._

_“Let him have time to explore before you claim him as your own, Loki.”_

_Loki’s attention snapped to Hermes, “What?”_

_“I see how you look at him. You are not subtle, old friend.”_

_“I look at him in no particular way.”_

_Hermes scoffed, “No? Do your eyes not follow him whenever he is around? Do you not first seek him out when you enter this bubble even if I am the one who greets you? Even your smile, wickedly sharp as always, softens when you see him.”_

_“And what of it? He is grown, is he not?”_

_“In age yes, but not in life. He knows the ways of tricksters but not people. He has contact with only us and if you were to approach him now he would say yes, for what else could he say when he knows nothing else?”_

_“So you would have me refuse what I feel for him for eternity?” Loki rounded on Hermes and Hermes rose an eyebrow which caused Loki to huff. “Yes, I have feelings for him. It’s not like I can help it.”_

_“No, you could not, could you?” Hermes shook his head and continued, “And no, I would not have you hide for eternity. Just long enough that he knows there are other options. That you are not the only person he knows other than myself. Let him grow and see the world, Loki. Before you claim him as your own and never let him out of your sight again.”_

_“And if I don’t?”_

_“I believe you are acquainted with my sister, Artemis?”_

_Loki paled at the mention of the huntress. She would hound him until he died, she would have her hunters track him down wherever he went if he did not do as Hermes said. And she would do it without any compulsion on Hermes’ part as well, for Sam would soon be her brother just as much as Hermes was._

_“You are a cruel man,” he said as he turned away, admitting defeat without actually admitting anything._

_Hermes laughed, “But of course! I am a trickster, after all!”_

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

_Sam was grinning as he explored the town of Grenchen in Switzerland with Loki at his side. The two of them were strolling down one of the many streets to see what their new home base was like. Two years had passed since Sam had taken over from Hermes and become a full trickster. It was agony having to be with Sam every day and still unable to tell him just how he felt about the other._

_But he had promised Hermes (in a way) and he did not want to give Artemis any more reasons to pop by unannounced. Which she had already done, several times. The first time had just been a quick visit to say hello to her new brother which had made Sam adorably flustered. From the glare she sent him while fiddling with one of her many arrows, Artemis had been made aware of the pact between him and Ermis._

_Since then, Artemis had popped in for a few hours or a few days, depending on her mood. Sam had grown to love her immensely, not having had a sister before and thoroughly enjoying himself. Artemis, too, loved her new brother just as much as she loved Ermis. There were no worries that the new family would not get along with each other. When Zeus had finally realised that Hermes was no longer acting as Hermes and had in fact retired, Artemis had been there with Sam when he went to meet with Zeus for the first time (the god would have gotten grumpy had Loki been there, something about other religions messing his own up)._

_Loki felt a sudden tug and left his thoughts to find Sam pulling him eagerly towards a chocolate shop where chocolatiers where making their product for customers to see. Loki could see Sam’s trickster eyes shining and knew that his were too. All tricksters were a sucker for sweets, no matter how old they may be._

_The sheer glee on Sam’s face when he indulged some of the chocolate made Loki hate Hermes with all of his might. How he wished he was allowed to wipe off the dripping chocolate from around Sam’s mouth with his own. But he wasn’t. Sam was still exploring the outside world, still discovering himself after over a thousand years secluded in a bubble with only occasional trips out to perform various duties._

_And so Loki would wait, just as he had been waiting for nearly all of those thousand years. What was a few more years after so long, after all? Surely he could manage that._

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

_“Loki,” Sam’s tone made Loki look up at Sam and abandon the magazine he was reading._

_“Yeah, Sammich?”_

_Sam grimaced and shuffled on his feet slightly, “I…well…that is…”_

_Lok rose a slightly amused eyebrow at the other, “You want to use your words, Sambo? Whilst I can read minds, I prefer not to do it to my friends.”_

_Sam flushed and looked down at his toes. Mumbling, he asked them, “Do you like me?”_

_Loki blinked, “Of course I like you, Sam.” Oh so much, probably too much, he added on silently._

_“I know you like me, but do you_ like _me? Artemis said that you did and that Hermes had made you promise to not…” he trailed off for a moment but pressed on soon after, “_ claim _me.”_

_There was silence as Loki processed what Sam had said while Sam continued his awkward shuffling in front of him. Eventually, Loki clarified, “Artemis told you this?”_

_Sam nodded, still looking at his toes and Loki sucked in a breath. Was this Hermes’ and Artemis’ way of saying that they thought Sam ready for him to confess how he felt? Was this their way of giving him their blessing? “I see. And what do you think of it, Sam?”_

_Sam’s head shot up and he stared wide-eyed at Loki. Evidently, he had not expected this response from Loki. “Uh… I mean, I wouldn’t mind?”_

_Loki got up from the armchair he had been occupying and stepped closer to Sam, tilting the other’s head down slightly to make eye contact. “You wouldn’t mind? You need to be sure, Sam. Are you absolutely sure?” Sam gulped but nodded hesitantly. Loki smiled at the gesture but knew that Sam wasn’t entirely sure. “You’re not, not yet. When you are, either way, tell me.”_

_After Sam had nodded, Loki pulled him in for a fierce kiss and returned to his magazine, leaving a blushing Sam standing shocked where he had been conversing with his toes. While he may look completely unruffled at the scene that had just taken place, inside Loki was a mass of whirling emotions. What if Sam said no? What if Sam said yes? He had kissed Sam to show the other that there was no doubt for him on whether or not he would claim Sam as his own if he said yes. And if Sam said no, well, at least he’d have the memory of a single kiss when he grew too despondent._

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

_“I’m sure.” Sam said out of the blue as they arrived home one night after a stroll around town._

_Loki hummed absently in question, searching through the various magazines on the coffee table for inspiration. “Of what, Samshine?”_

_“I want you to claim me.” Loki’s head snapped up as he stared at Sam. Sam met his gaze unflinchingly, staring back just as intensely._

_Slowly, Loki straightened from his hunched-over position and stalked towards the other. “You are_ entirely _sure? No doubts?”_

_Sam shook his head, “No doubts. Just one condition.”_

_“Oh?”_

_“I get to claim you as well.”_

_Loki grinned at that, “Of course, that shan’t be a problem at all.”_

_That was when they had started being LokiandSam instead of merely Loki and Sam. They were both happy, blissfully so and Artemis had nodded her approval the next time she visited. She passed on a message to Loki from Hermes as well._ Thank you _was all it said but it was enough._

_Hermes was glad that Sam would not be alone in his immortal life, glad that Loki had given Sam a chance to really choose what he wanted. He was happy that his friends had found happiness in each other and also found it rather ironic seeing as he and Lopt were also getting quite close in their retirement. Who knew the Norse and Greek could get along so well?_


	11. Tricks Rising

Pain. Everything had devolved into pain until that was all he knew. There was a gaping hole in his chest where his heart had once been that would never heal, it would always be there. The pain radiated out from it and swept over his entire body as he lay in the darkness and wondered _what next_. He didn’t know where he was or where he was going. He remembered who he had been but shied away from that life. He had no desire to return to the hurt that brought. He stayed where it was safe, within his own mind and accompanied by memories of a happier time.

Unknown to him, there was another who shared his pain. Another with a hole in his chest, though this hole was slowly healing. The way to kill a trickster was a wooden stake dipped in the blood of one of that trickster’s victims. So how then, could a trickster die when the wrong blood was used? Logic had no place while grief was present, thus this question was never asked. Perhaps if it had, some heartbreak could have been spared.

In some deep reaches of his mind, Sam was aware that he was dead. He had not expected to die this quickly. He had lived over for over thousand years and had grown used to being alive. Now he was dead, killed by those who had left him all those years ago. Those that had wished for his death ever since he was a young child. Well, one of them had.

There was a vague sensation of pain where he knew his chest would be if he had a body. He was floating in a darkness with no sense of time. He didn’t know what had happened, really. All he knew was that Loki had died and he had lost all sense of common sense. He had gone slightly berserk, wanting to kill his old father for what he had done to his lover.

There was far too much pain that could occur should he live past Loki. He didn’t want to imagine a life without his closest friend and lover. There wasn’t much that he hadn’t shared with the other trickster. He had spent most of life around the other and been saved by him. What was a life without Loki? Yes, he had Artemis and Ermis, but they weren’t Loki.

Loki, who had waited for him to be ready before telling him how he felt about Sam. Loki, who had agreed to follow Hermes’ wishes to let Sam be free to be himself outside of the bubble. Loki, who had let Sam figure out what he wanted for himself even after Ermis and Artemis had given him their blessing to enter a relationship with Sam. Loki, who had lied to Sam all the time he had known him and hidden the fact that he was an archangel of the Lord, Gabriel.

As he thought about that, Sam felt a stab of pain that somehow exceeded the overwhelming pain that already encompassed his whole non-existent body. Loki had died thinking that Sam hated him. Sam had felt betrayal, yes, but he would never be able to hate the one he claimed as his own and had been claimed in turn. There was too much between them to make even a huge secret like this tear them apart.

Loki had died because he had been asking Sam for forgiveness. Sam had seen it in his eyes when he had silently begged Sam to give his family a chance and wanted a chance to comfort the turmoil of emotions he would have been able to see in Sam’s own eyes. The other god had been so distracted by Sam’s emotions that John Winchester had been able to sneak up behind him and stab him with the stake he had prepared.

The pain spread further, washing out the physical pain. He could feel a tingle of magic exploring the epicentre of physical pain. It poked and prodded, Sam frowned slightly when he felt the pain recede slightly. What was happening? Surely he was dead, should he not be moving on to Purgatory? Still, he could feel it as his magic crept into the hole and started healing it. The muscles built themselves back into existence, veins reconnected with each other and his skin knit itself together.

As the magic continued its work, Sam could feel the darkness receding and he suddenly felt a heaviness where before there had only been a light floating. Sounds crept in from the previous background buzzing, he could hear deep breathing next to him with faint traffic sounds further away. The next sensation to return was touch, there was a small patch of warmth nestled at his side.

Near that point of warmth was another, surrounding one of his hands that had been pulled slightly away from his body. His hand was almost completely enveloped, another hand holding it and it seemed as though a head may be also resting on it.

He wondered what the patches of warmth were. As far as he was aware, he was still at the school auditorium. Either that or he should be in a morgue once his and Loki’s dead bodies were found in the university. Or perhaps his family had moved him. But then, why would he be laying on a rather comfortable mattress with what seemed to be someone at his bedside. He couldn’t imagine John doing something like that and he didn’t think Dean would be the type. Plus, there was the fact that John probably wouldn’t allow Dean to mourn for a brother he didn’t know. He especially wouldn’t want to cart around the dead body of a trickster.

So what had happened since he had died? Who was with him? Artemis? Ermis? How would they know to come find him? It made no sense and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get his eyes to function for him. So he lay there, in the dark with warmth enveloping one side of him as he waited to see what would happen next.

Neither patch of warmth moved as he waited. They were both completely still. If he concentrated hard enough (which was quite easy to do as he had nothing else to do with his time) he could feel a slight movement from the curled-up patch next to his side. It felt like breathing. He recognised that pattern, he realised.

He knew the way that chest moved and had felt it many times while relaxing on the couch. Somehow, Mischief was laying besides him. Was he back home then? A wave of anguish threatened to overwhelm him as he thought of home. Home was where he lived with Loki and Loki was dead. Asking for two tricksters to miraculously come back to life was a bit much and though Loki had said he wouldn’t die, Sam didn’t quite believe him.

His blood family had had stakes prepared for Loki, dipped in the blood of his victims and there was no way a trickster could survive that. Hermes had taught him much during his apprenticeship and Sam knew that the only sure way to kill a trickster was by using such a method. Hermes had drilled it into him, telling him to leave should a hunter approach him with the only weapon that could kill a trickster.

He should probably apologise to the retired trickster, he had completely disregarded his instructions, after all. Though, perhaps Hermes would forgive him due to the circumstances in which Sam had been in. He _could not_ let Loki just lie dead on the floor without trying to avenge him. Hermes would surely understand what Sam had been going through. Sam hoped he would, he didn’t think he’d make it if Hermes yelled at him for trying to somehow bring Loki back futilely.

There was another thing that nagged at him. The smells in his nose that had just turned on were so familiar. He knew those smells and his location was confirmed as the various fragrances trickled into his nostrils. He was home, somehow. But more than that, he was surrounded by the smell of Loki.

He wanted to cry at that but was unable to. There was still no breath being taken into his lungs and Sam wondered how he had not died again without breath. Then he felt the slight remaining trickles of his magic that were still busily fixing his chest. Of course, he didn’t currently have the lungs to breathe. It was strange, not breathing and yet being aware. He wondered how it was that he had returned, both to life and to home.

His magic twitched slightly and Sam instinctively turned his attention to it. The silver magic twined around his body and was currently working on expelling the blood that had been forced into his body with the wooden stake used to kill him. The blood seemed to sparkle as his magic drew his attention to it and Sam realised what had happened.

The way to kill a trickster was by stabbing them with a wooden stake dipped in blood. Blood of that trickster’s victim. Sam had been stabbed by a wooden stake dipped in a victim’s blood, yes, but not _his_ victim’s blood. His only victim that the Winchester’s would know about was the college kid Curtis who was still alive and kicking and probably would not have been happy if the hunters demanded his blood.

The blood on the stake had been that of Loki’s victims. It had been prepared for Loki, the only trickster they knew about. They hadn’t thought of needing separate stakes with separate blood for separate tricksters because they thought there had only been one. Tricksters, after all, were not known as creatures that travelled in packs.

Even with the knowledge of how he had survived, Sam couldn’t help but wish he hadn’t. Loki would still be dead, the stakes had been prepared for him and had the blood of his victims on them. There was no way the other would have survived, Loki was a trickster, even if he had originally been something else. Surely, something that would kill a trickster would also kill an archangel turned trickster.

Another tingle went through him and Sam’s eyes twitched. Experimenting, he tried to open his eyes and was rewarded with a view of what he knew to be the living room ceiling in his flat. When air finally made its way into his lungs, he sighed lightly. So he was alive and home, what next. Remembering the warmth beside him, Sam moved his gaze from the ceiling and towards his left. What he saw there stunned him to his very core.

Mischief was there, as he’d suspected but the other figure was one that he had never dared hope to see alive again. It was Loki, curled up around his hand with his eyes closed and an utter stillness covering his entire body. His lover’s face was blank, not in the way sleep would make someone go blank but more in the way of having nothing left to feel.

Sam’s heart broke at the sight. His lover should never be still, he held too much energy to remain in one position for very long. He should be bouncing around the place with a lollipop or some other sugary treat in his mouth or hand. It was _so wrong_ seeing him there. Wincing at left over pain, Sam carefully sat up. There was nothing to suggest Loki had noticed his movement.

Carefully, still wary of pain and the slightly smaller hole in his chest, Sam brought his free hand up off what he now saw was what had once been the couch and took it over to Loki. Gently, ever so gently, he let his hand descend onto the golden head of his lover and let it rest there, soaking in the presence of one he never thought he’d see again.

Still nothing. Even with the contact, Loki made no movements. Sam started to panic slightly. “Loki?” he rasped out, vocal cords getting used to being used again.

Loki twitched slightly, letting out a moan that wrenched at Sam’s heart. The sound that Loki had just made spoke of utter devastation. Mischief perked up slightly at the sound of Sam’s voice and Sam smiled gently at him.

“Hey, Mischief,” he said softly, trying not to aggravate his voice too much as it came back online. “What happened to Loki, do you know?”

Mischief whined and bumped his head to Loki’s, the head shifted with the force and then swayed back to its original position over Sam’s trapped hand. The dog looked up at Sam and gave another whine. In his eyes, Sam could see the worry the dog held for Loki, showing that the other had probably been in this state for quite some time.

Taking his hand away from Loki’s head, he tried to reclaim the hand that Loki held tightly. The grip tightened and another pained moan came from Loki. Gingerly, Sam moved himself closer to where Loki was curled up and used his one free hand to wrap around Loki’s body, dragging him up to where Sam could envelop him in a hug.

“Loki,” he whispered gently into Loki’s ear once his lover was situated on Sam’s lap. “Loki, wake up, love. You need to come back to me.”

Loki shifted slightly and Sam took that as a sign that he was getting through to his catatonic lover. “You promised you’d never leave me, remember Loki? And now what have you gone and done? You’ve left me here with only Mischief for company. You should know better, Lo. I will always try my best to come back to you, but you have to come back to me too. Right? Wasn’t that what we agreed on?”

“Sam…” came a whimper, “ _please_.”

“I’m here, love. All you have to do is open your eyes. Come back to me, Loki. Come back to me.”

“No,” Loki whined, burying deeper into the embrace Sam had him in, probably unaware of the blood present and trickling out of the injury magic was still healing.

“Yes, Loki. I promise you that I’m here. Stop dreaming of me and come back to me, _please_.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Gabriel had long since slipped into his own mind as he lay next to the dead body of Sam. He didn’t care anymore. For so long he had merely been travelling around from place to place and hiding his own sorrow by causing others the same. His mentor – the old Loki – had tried to help him move past the pain he felt when he thought of the angels he had left behind and wondering where his Father was. But Lopt hadn’t known enough and Gabriel’s pain had been too fresh for him to face.

He had calmed down by the time he had seen a young hunter child all alone in a hospital room and decided to have some fun. Not too much fun, it was a child after all. But after he had known the child for only a few minutes, he knew that this child could quite possibly mean the death of him. The child was alone. From what the child told him, his family also spent their time arguing and Gabriel couldn’t just walk away after that.

So he had become a companion for the child, taken on the name Tricks as a laugh of how well it suited him. There were no tricks played on the child, except perhaps that of slowly healing him of his injuries with special grace infused lollipops. When the child’s family should have come back to pick him up, Gabriel had been worried. He didn’t have the best track record with family but even he knew that children were important and that they were generally the ones that a family looked out for the most.

When the truth of why the child’s family hadn’t come for him, Gabriel’s heart had broken slightly. He had gained an instant dislike of one John Winchester, leaving a child alone in the world was unacceptable. Even a demon wouldn’t have abandoned a child like the Winchester patriarch had. Against his better judgement, Gabriel had taken the child to his own place and then let him remain there for as long as he wished. Then he heard about Hermes wanting to retire and the most absurd idea had flittered through his mind. Why not? It wasn’t as if the Winchester’s would want their missing family member back and it may possibly stop his own original family from having their squabble that threatened to destroy the Earth as it was.

Then he had visited Hermes and Sam after the fifty year waiting period and his breath had been stolen away by the man that the little abandoned boy had become. There was mischief sparkling in the eyes that had previously been filled primarily with sadness. The boy had even managed to get the upper hand on him a few times with his pranks! He knew he was done for, even before Hermes confronted him about it.

But now, now those eyes would never again sparkle with mischievousness. Never again would they look upon Gabriel with more love then he felt he deserved but would greedily take anyway and return it just as much. It _hurt_ and he wanted to run away from the pain. So he did. He retreated into the farthest depths of his mind and refused to think about what he was curled around. Perhaps, if he pretended long enough, he could make himself believe that Sam was still with him.

Inside his mind, he found the many memories of him and Sam. They were wonderful, he never wanted to leave them because now they were the only thing he had left of his love apart from a cold shell. A sensation passed over his head and he wondered at it briefly but then remembered that Mischief was in the outside world and put it down to the dog moving. Mischief wasn’t important at the moment, Gabriel only cared about Sam and the memories he had of the trickster.

A voice called out to him. A voice he knew and also knew he would never hear again. He let out a keen of pain as he thought of that, burying himself deeper in his memories in an effort to hide from the nightmare that was the outside world. The voice didn’t stop though, he felt himself being moved around and wondered at Mischief’s ability to move him.

He imagined a presence completely enfolding him, wrapping around him like Sam did and he moaned at the realisation that it was only a dream. Just a dream of something that had once been taken for granted but was now impossible. His love’s voice came again, echoing through his mind as he desperately tried to bury himself in the familiar feeling of Sam being wrapped around him.

He begged for Sam to stay, begged his mind to let him have the feeling that he craved so much. He could hear the words being spoken and wished with all his might they were true but knew they weren’t. Yes, they had promised each other not to leave but there wasn’t much he could do about it when Sam was _dead_. He didn’t want to return to a world where there was no Sam, no matter how much the voice told him that Sam was there, waiting for him to return.

It was a lie. A trick. He knew all about tricks, performed them nearly every day. He had probably accidently tricked himself, bringing an illusion of Sam to life because he couldn’t imagine a life without the other. The voice didn’t give up. Kept begging Gabriel, or rather, Loki, to return and go back to a Sam that wasn’t real. He just wanted to be left alone in his mind where Sam wasn’t dead and he could still see the other.

He knew that if he opened his eyes, there would be no Sam and he would be unable to even create an illusion of him. Then he would know for sure that the Sam he had created wasn’t _his_ Sam, at least with his eyes closed, he could pretend, a little bit.

The archangel jolted slightly when he felt something wet drip onto his skin and a pressure being applied to the top of his head. They had felt real, it certainly wasn’t Mischief and he knew what his tricks felt like. There wasn’t any of his magic surrounding the actions. Instead, there was Sam’s magic. The magic of Hermes that he had inherited from his predecessor. Barely able to let himself hope and yet not able to refuse the evidence that it might be true, Gabriel slowly returned from his mind and opened his eyes.

He was sitting in a very familiar lap. One that he was intimately familiar with due to all the times previous where he had sat in the exact position he was now in. His head was buried into an almost achingly familiar chest, complete with hole and yet _moving_ with breath. With shaking fingers, he traced the planes of that chest, avoiding the bloody hole and unable to quite believe it when he felt only Sam’s magic.

With scared eyes, Gabriel let his gaze drift upwards from the clothed chest. He saw the neck, the chin, the mouth he loved to kiss, the adorable nose and finally, he reached the eyes. They were staring down at him with such love and relief that Gabriel couldn’t help it anymore. He let out a sob and threw his arms around Sam, crying the tears that he hadn’t allowed to fall previously.

Sam merely held him just as tightly, judging from the way his body shook, he was also crying. Mischief ran around the both of them, yapping happily as he saw that both of his fathers were awake and all better.

“Sam.” Loki choked out and Sam held him even tighter.

“I’m here. You’re here. We’re both _here_ , Loki.”

“Thank you.”

Sam shook his head and brought up Loki’s head to place a searing kiss on his lips, “Thank _you_. Thank you for not dying.”

Gabriel laughed wetly, “I told you, didn’t I?”

“Yes, yes you did. And I am so sorry. Please forgive me, Gabriel?” Gabriel shook his head slightly.

“What kind of a question is that? I thought you gone forever and here you are asking for my forgiveness. There is nothing to forgive, Sam. I kept my past from you, unaware that it was important but still I did it. It is me, who should be asking for forgiveness.”

“Never,” Sam drew Loki in close again and they both soaked up the presence of the one they thought they had lost forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, do you love me for bringing Sam back or hate me for killing him in the first place? Or a mixture of both?


	12. Family of Tricks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back!! So sorry that I vanished for so long in regards to this story. It took me a while to figure out how I was going to be taking this story from here and I didn't have much pre-written past this point. I still don't, but I at least have a plan now. I also thought it would be better to leave you all with the happy fluff of coming back to life than this random filler chapter.

There was quiet in the house of Loki and Hermes. It was a different quiet than the one that had previously been present. No longer was the place soaked in misery and despair. Instead, it held within it an air of joy and relief. One that had been physically dead and one that had been mentally and emotionally dead lay curled around each other and basked in the knowledge that the one they loved had returned to them.

Sam slept atop Gabriel as his body continued to be healed by the magic he held. He had no energy to acknowledge the outside world farther than knowing that Gabriel was there with him. Loki, himself, paid no attention to anything beyond the continued rise and fall of Sam’s chest, reassuring himself that Sam was still alive. At least, he paid no attention to anything other than that until their front door was kicked open by an infuriated Greek huntress.

“Loki!” She yelled. “What have you done to my brother?”

Loki jerked up, or at least, he tried to. It was rather hard to move when he was pinned in place by a determined sleep-heavy Sam (who was somehow still asleep even with the loud shouting huntress that had just burst into their home, Loki put that down to healing). Unable to move, he instead put on his most innocent looking face and stared quizzically at an overprotective sister.

With a calm smile, he asked, “Whatever do you mean, my dear Artemis?”

Artemis’ glare increased as she moved swiftly but silently to Sam’s side. Her brother didn’t even twitch as she laid a hand on his hair, visually inspecting him and finding the still slightly open wound visible in his back. She stroked through the hair lightly; not wanting to wake him but reassuring herself that he was alive.

“What happened to him, Loki? He was gone, I couldn’t find him anywhere. There was nothing left of him in my mind.”

Loki sighed, staring down at the sleeping face of Sam. The fact that Artemis couldn’t find Sam confirmed his suspicions. All Greeks were intrinsically linked, they could find one another anywhere and the bond between siblings was even stronger. Add in the fact that Artemis was a hunter who could track down anything and the end result was one he did not like to think about.

Sam had been dead. Truly and completely dead. It was only through a miracle of trickster death conditions that he hadn’t remained so. He had come so close to losing Sam forever. Looking up at Artemis, he saw that she suspected something along the same lines but didn’t want to believe it.

“He died, Artemis. His blood family were in town and after me. I believe they killed him after I was out of the game.”

She stared at him, eyes somehow both hardening and softening at the same time. “How is he alive, then?”

“I don’t know. I’m just glad that he is.”

She nodded, getting down on her knees as she continued to look over her brother and continue gently running her hand through his hair. “Why is he sleeping? Why hasn’t he woken up? I’m fairly sure I made quite a bit of noise coming in here.”

They shared a rueful smile and Loki shrugged slightly in answer to her question. “I think it’s because he’s still healing. He might be alive but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t…” he trailed off, still unable to put into words the fact that Sam had died.

Artemis nodded in understanding. “I’m staying here,” she warned, eyes threatening Loki to even _try_ and say she couldn’t. Loki didn’t try. He knew it would be hopeless and he couldn’t deny her the chance to make certain for herself that her brother was okay. She relaxed as he nodded and asked softly, “Do you need anything?”

He shook his head, still encased within Sam’s sleep-heavy arms, he had everything he needed. She smiled and rose up, moving to one of the windows where he was sure some of her hunters were waiting outside for a sign. A few hand signals later and Artemis was back by Sam’s side, caressing his hair as she waited for him to heal and wake up.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Sam shifted slightly as he dragged himself from the unfamiliar sensation of sleep. Loki was still in his arms, he was relieved to notice. Sam had apparently not let him move even while sleeping, judging from how his arms were pinning the other god in one spot. There was another hand on his head though, one that did not belong to Loki.

Turning his head, he squinted in the light and saw the familiar figure of his sister. “Hey, Arts.”

Artemis swatted him slightly with a relieved grin, “You go and die and all you have to say for yourself is _hey, Arts_?”

“I’m sorry.” And he was, he was so very sorry that he had had to put his adopted sister through what he had. The two were close and he knew that Artemis would have been able to feel when he had died; it was part of being a Greek god.

“Don’t be sorry, idiot. I’m just glad that you’re alive. You are far too young to die on me, you hear?” He nodded and she gave him a grin.

“I will do my best not to die again, dear sister,” Sam promised and he felt Gabriel’s grip tighten.

“You better not, Sambo.”

“How long was I out?”

“Too long,” was Gabriel’s soft reply and Artemis shrugged slightly, her eyes glistening with remembered pain.

“I couldn’t find you for four days. When you reappeared in my mind, I came here as quickly as I could and have been here for two days.”

“Six days?” Sam asked quietly. “I’ve been gone for six days?”

“Longest six days of my life.” The bare pain in Loki’s voice made Sam’s heart hurt even more than the place where his chest had been opened up with a bit of wood. Even the few minutes where he had thought Loki dead had been painful. He didn’t want to think about just how long Loki and Artemis had felt that same pain.

Instead he opened his arms to Artemis who crawled up next to him and hugged his family tight. They were all okay now, that was what mattered.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Dean couldn’t quite explain why he was feeling so twitchy lately. It had begun a few hours after they had left Springfield, had left _Sam_. It was like there was someone watching him constantly, but he could never see anything to suggest that that was the case. He had considered many things—had put up protections that would stop almost any supernatural creature. The feeling didn’t go away.

He considered bringing it up with his father, thought about talking to the other man again but he couldn’t get the image of his father driving a stake through his brother’s chest out of his head. That image remained fixed at the forefront of his mind. It was always there. Whenever he closed his eyes, he could see the moment Sam died at the hands of their father. He _hated it_.

But there was nothing he could do. The brother he had spent twelve years searching for was dead and now something was watching him. After a while, he thought that maybe it was another trickster, wanting revenge for them killing Loki and _Sam_ in Springfield. He found he didn’t much care. If there was someone who wanted to hurt him for failing to protect his little brother, Dean found that he would happily walk up to that person and offer himself up freely.

His father said nothing. He simply continued to drive them from hunt to hunt with the same single-minded determination he had always had. It almost made Dean sick until he realised that he was doing the same thing. He threw himself into hunting, trying to get rid of _that_ image. Not that hunting really helped. He could escape the image while he was focused on a monster right in front of him but as soon as he slipped into sleep, the image was there. It played over and over again in a horrible loop.

Dean didn’t sleep well anymore. He barely got three hours in a night. When he looked over at the bed that housed his father, all he saw was a still figure. He didn’t know if the other was sleeping or not. He hoped with a sick sort of justice that he wasn’t. That he too, kept reliving the time when he killed his own son.

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled again and he knew that whatever was watching them was back. He wondered when whatever it was would reveal itself. He hoped that it wouldn’t just continue to watch them without showing any other signs of its existence. He wasn’t sure if he could handle having a silent watcher for the rest of his life. But then, maybe that was its plan? Watch them until they became so paranoid that they were physically incapable of doing anything.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

He had received no new orders from his sibling. He had heard nothing at all from them, in fact. That didn’t matter really, he was rather used to receiving one set of orders and carrying them out until a new set was issued. Castiel would continue to follow the two hunters until such a time as his sibling gave him a new task.

His focus was on the younger one for the most part. That one intrigued him. The elder one showed no signs of being aware that he had killed something precious whereas the younger one was constantly waking up from nightmares. The pain and sadness on his face made Castiel want to soothe the man’s mind.

He couldn’t though. He wasn’t allowed to soothe these people that had caused such pain to one of his siblings and even thinking about that pain made Castiel’s desire to soothe back away completely. An angel’s claim was absolute. Once an angel claimed someone as theirs, there was no going back. With no sound from his sibling, Castiel had to wonder if they had followed the one they had claimed before showing the hunters what an angel’s wrath meant.

If it hadn’t been for the pressure of his orders, Castiel would be sure that his sibling had ceased to exist. But the orders were there still, they had not dulled or been tarnished in any way. His sibling was still around. It was just a matter of time before they called on Castiel to reveal all he had learned of the hunters.

Castiel had learned a lot about these hunters. It had been a shock when he learned just who he was following. It was well known in Heaven that the true vessels of Michael and Lucifer were Dean and Sam Winchester. Castiel was following _John_ and Dean Winchester, there was no sign of the youngest. There _had been_ no sign of the youngest Winchester for twelve Earth years and Heaven was in uproar over that.

How could there be an apocalypse if one of the true vessels was missing? Castiel thought that Michael didn’t seem too worried on the few occasions he had seen the archangel. After all, if the true vessel of Lucifer was missing, what would be the point of Lucifer escaping the cage? There had been a search for the youngest Winchester when he had first gone missing but they had found no sign of the boy. Since then, it had almost become a taboo topic even if it was one that was on most angel’s minds.

Dean Winchester was an interesting human to watch. He seemed wracked with grief and yet showed none of it when his father was around. When Dean was in a hunt, it was as though there was nothing else. Dean Winchester had turned dead inside and Castiel wondered what had happened to make the vessel of Michael so broken.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Sam was currently in danger of dying again as his sister hugged him tightly. She had run out of time to stay with him and had to go take care of her duties as Zeus’ Huntress and the Leader of her Hunters. There were many things that needed the attention of a great hunter and Zeus had grown tired of trying to get Apollo to locate those that had annoyed him.

Both she and Hermes had been getting headaches while Zeus mentally yelled at Artemis to come back and do her job. The three of them had decided that overall it would be better for Sam if Artemis left so that he could focus on healing the slight hole in his chest instead of trying to drown out the demolition crew that was working in both Artemis’ and Sam’s heads.

She had decided that she would leave a team of Hunters behind to keep an eye on her brother though. Considering what had happened just a few weeks ago, it was a fair decision. The Hunters of Artemis were not something that the hunters of the supernatural knew of or hunted. The few hunters who did know about the Hunters, generally left them alone as they knew that the Hunters were aiding in the giant battle against the supernatural creatures that were going around and killing innocents.

“Don’t you die on me again, Hermes.”

Sam smiled grimly into his sister’s shoulder and hugged her tighter, “I don’t plan on it, Arts.”

“Good.” One last squeeze and they stepped back from each other. Artemis moved onto to Loki and punched him lightly before pulling him into a hug. “You look after him or I’ll set my Hunters on you.”

“They wouldn’t have much hunting to do, Artemis.”

“I know.”

Just at that moment, there was another thunder of annoyance from Zeus and both Artemis and Hermes winced. Their time together was over, it would seem. Zeus was not a patient god and he was especially not patient when one of his children was not performing the jobs he assigned to them.

Artemis grinned at the both of them as she proceeded over to the window to signal her Hunters. “I’ll be seeing the both of you again. Soon.”

They both nodded and she gave a short two-fingered salute before jumping out of the open window and racing away with a joyful laugh, her Hunters following after her.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

It had been a few hours since Artemis had left and the thought that had been niggling in Gabriel’s mind finally formed into an idea. The past week had been the worst he had ever experienced, worse then the fighting that had initially caused him to run away to become a pagan god instead of a Christian angel. He had a way that he hoped would make sure that could never happen again. He just hoped Sam would agree to it.

“Sam?” he asked in the quiet of their home.

Sam looked up from the book he had been reading and smiled softly at the archangel at his side. “Yeah Gabe?”

That was another thing. Ever since Sam had come back, he was freely switching between names for Gabriel. Sometimes Sam called him Loki, sometimes Gabriel and sometimes a variation of either of them. It made Gabriel’s heart warm at the acceptance he was being given, especially after he had thought the last memory he would have of Sam was one where Sam struggled to accept Gabriel’s hidden past.

“I have something to ask of you. You don’t have to say yes, although I beg that you do.”

“What’s going through your mind, Gabriel?”

Gabriel took a deep breath. “You know I’m an angel,” Sam nodded, slightly confused and he continued, “You also know that _because_ I’m an angel, it is impossible for hunters to kill me unless they somehow find an archangel blade.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I want to make you an angel.” Sam stared down at him.

“You want to make me an angel,” he repeated flatly. “Is that even possible? And are you sure that Artemis won’t kill you for thinking such a thing?”

Gabriel nodded, “You know Artemis would just be happy that you’re harder to kill. Every angel is allowed to convert one other if that other has been claimed by them. Our Father never wanted us to be alone if we ended up claiming a mortal.”

“How does it work though? Would I end up like you, both trickster and angel?”

“Pretty much. You’d have access to grace and trickster magic if you say yes. I don’t want to lose you again, Sam. This means that someone is going to have to try very hard to kill you and we won’t have to rely on sheer luck.”

Sam’s grip tightened on Gabriel at the mention of his death, “Yes. Make me an angel. I’m not leaving you, Gabriel.”

Gabriel surged upwards and proceeded to kiss the living daylights out of Sam. With Sam’s agreement, he would never have to worry about losing the other again unless his siblings decided to come down to Earth and start messing around. Even better, it would take an archangel’s blade to fully kill Sam due to him being claimed by an archangel. Anything lower than that would harm Sam but never to such a point where he couldn’t recover.


	13. Angel Tricks

The ritual was a simple one. It was also one of the most complicated things that Gabriel had ever done. He was both trickster and angel, his chosen was a trickster and would become an angel. The two things needed to coincide with the other and be able to exist happily. Generally, a chosen was human but it did happen that a chosen was something supernatural and his father had allowed for that.

The ritual was like an adoption and a marriage all in one. His father would accept the chosen into his family and grant them the grace that came with being an angel. Then he would allow the newly created angel to bond completely with the one that had claimed them.

Of course, generally his father was around and Gabriel would be able to approach him for the ritual. The problem was that God hadn’t been seen in a very long time and they simply had to hope that he was still around and aware enough of what his children were doing to grant Sam’s ascension into his close family.

The ritual itself was similar to that of the trickster handover that had allowed Sam to become Hermes. The blood of those participating was spilled and shared but this time not on twine, instead it was spilled onto a circle of runes. The angel’s grace was shed and shared with their claimed. It allowed the ritual to see what protections were necessary for the claimed to gain.

In the case of Gabriel and Sam, it meant that Sam would have all the powers of an archangel and would be protected as an archangel would be. It meant that no mere seraph could kill Sam with their blade. If ever Sam or Gabriel were to die and not return, they would have to be killed using an archangel’s blade by an archangel.

Shining silver glistened in the firelight as Gabriel stood in the little clearing they had chosen for the ritual. Sam was standing across from him, eyes closed and smiling gently to himself as he took in the aura of the magic-made clearing. There were so many healing plants located in the clearing that it was soothing to Hermes; he had a close connection to healers and medicine via the study of alchemy, after all.

The presence of plants such as aloe vera, lavender, peppermint and sage helped to calm his apprehension of the ritual they were about to perform. Gabriel grinned shakily at him when Sam’s eyes opened and locked onto his own. He wanted this, wanted it with his entire being but that didn’t mean it didn’t scare him. What if his father wasn’t around anymore and the ritual didn’t work?

Still, it didn’t hurt to try, and Gabriel was sure that his father wouldn’t allow an angel’s claimed to be in harms way. Gripping the hilt of his blade even tighter, Gabriel took a deep breath and drew the sharp weapon across the palm of his hand, letting the grace and silver blood drip onto the Enochian runic circle he had drawn earlier.

On the other side of the circle, Sam summoned Hermes’ caduceus and let the snakes bite into his skin before holding out his arm and allowing his wrist to drip the golden ichor onto the circle. The two types of blood swirled around on the ground, soaking into the runes and blending together. As a soft light started glowing from the blending blood and grace, Gabriel started the chant.

“ _Father, I ask you to keep my claimed safe. I ask you that my claimed be accepted into your family. I ask that you recognise my claim and allow my claimed to remain with me throughout our combined lives. You have given to me my claimed, I ask that you do not now take them away from me._ ”

The glow intensified and it was Hermes’ time to speak. “ _You are not my father yet, but I ask that you will become so.  Your child has claimed me and I them, we ask together that we are not split apart. I ask that you accept me into your family as your child has._ ”

The blood soaked completely into the ground beneath it, erasing the circle as it did so. A feeling of peace and love entered the clearing and enveloped the two supernatural beings occupying the area. Gabriel felt tears come to his eyes as he was reminded of how Heaven once was, of what his home had once been. Memories of the good times with his siblings as they served their father flooded his mind. He felt his father’s presence and knew that his actions had been accepted and forgiven by his father, the shame he had felt since becoming Loki faded away.

Hermes felt the warmth travel through him, felt God examine him and make sure that Gabriel had not somehow made a mistake and claimed someone utterly unsuitable. He opened his heart and mind to God, let the other see all that Gabriel had done for him. He showed God the life he had had before he had become Hermes, when he was still young Samuel Winchester who only wanted to help his family.

He showed the devastated boy he had been when his father declared him a burden. He showed the love he held for Ermis, the trickster who had taught him so much and given him his name to carry on. Eventually, Sam showed God the life he had made with Gabriel, how they worked together as partners and always looked after each other.

At the end, he forced himself to dredge up the memories of that horrible day his original blood family had come into town and killed Loki. He showed the grief he had felt and the revenge he had desired, how he had accepted his death easily for there was nothing left for him to live for. How he had woken up so many days later and found Gabriel by his side and the joy they had both felt knowing that their love was still there with them.

“ _You are welcome to my family, Samuel Winchester, Hermes of Greece. Take care of my son._ ”

The presence left but Sam could feel the spark of grace that God had left inside of him. Over the course of the next several weeks the spark would grow and he would become an angel. For now though, he would pass out as his body got used to the foreign entity inside it and make it its own. The remaining light still tracing where the circle had once been died out and Hermes collapsed into the arms of his claimed.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Four days after Hermes had been given grace by God and started transforming into an angel, he was lying on the couch bored out of his mind. Gabriel had been a hovering worrywart and forbidden any tricks to be played by Hermes and to only eat items with a high sugar content to balance out the trickster and angel sides of him currently fighting for dominance. He sighed, fiddling with the small coin Ermis had given him when he had agreed to stay and learn.

Ermis had grinned and winked while saying, _“It’s always great fun when they play a trick on themselves.”_

“Playing a trick on themselves, huh?” Hermes mused. Mischief looked up at him and Hermes smoothed his hand along the length of the dog’s back. “Just talking to myself, Mischief.”

Mischief rested his snout back on his paws and enjoyed the patting that Hermes was giving him. The dog hadn’t been happy with Sam dying and had decided to stick as close to him as possible for the foreseeable future. Gabriel copied the action when he was around and wasn’t out unleashing barely suppressed trickster magic on the unsuspecting people in the place they were currently staying. It wasn’t easy for a trickster to remain still and quiet for very long, hence why Hermes was currently feeling so bored and itching to get out.

He flipped the coin up and caught it, considering the glinting metal as thoughts swirled around his mind. There was an idea hovering in the background that he just knew would get him out and playing tricks on people even while Gabriel insisted he rest.

“Play a trick on themselves,” he mused again. “A trick on themselves. A _trick_ on _themselves_!” The idea emerged fully formed in his brain and he sat up quickly, Mischief following his movements. “If I use this, they do all the work themselves and I get to enjoy the chaos. There is no reason for Gabe to tell me I’m not allowed to do this.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“No.” Gabriel’s voice was firm and he stood with his arms crossed as he glared at Hermes, offended at the mere suggestion that Hermes do something other than rest.

“What? Why?”

“Because you’re still healing! You have gone from being a trickster to being an archangel and it’s going to take some time before you’re ready to do anything remotely associated with being a trickster with all the grace currently swimming around inside of you!”

Hermes groaned and stormed away to stare out the window. “I’m bored, Gabe,” he said softly, the anger and annoyance gone from his voice. “You can go out and play some tricks, get rid of any excess energy you’ve built up. You’re not allowing me to do the same. I am an archangel now, yes, but I was originally a trickster and it’s that part of me that’s giving me all this energy you’re not letting me use.”

There was a sigh from behind him and Gabriel moved to lean against Hermes, both of them gazing out at the world outside the window. “I’m sorry, Hermes. It didn’t occur to me that you would still be gathering energy with no outlet. You think this coin Ermis gave you will work?”

“If I’m interpreting his words correctly, yeah. I’m pretty sure I just need to give this to someone and they’ll play the trick on themselves, allowing me to _rest_ and still enjoy chaos caused by me.”

“Alright then. I guess it’s time to move and find a new target.”

Hermes turned to wrap his arms fully around Gabriel, “Thank you, Gabe.”

“I’m sorry it took me this long to know you were suffering.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Wesley Mondale was grocery shopping, an act that he rather despised and did as little as possible. He wished he could have someone do his grocery shopping for him but he couldn’t. Wesley didn’t really trust anyone else to find the best products they could on the shelves like he did. It was a pain but so was buying inferior products for the same price as superior ones.

He had managed to find and select the best of what he needed and was now on the way to pay. Wesley normally paid with his credit card but had decided to use cash this time, specifically going to the ATM to get out the amount of money he would need that day. He wasn’t sure _why_ , but something in his mind had told him it would be a good idea.

The cashier smiled at him, Wesley was sure it was merely because it was a requirement of the job. No one could be happy spending their days in the monotony of scanning someone else’s groceries all day. The cashier asked about his day and Wesley shrugged, he wasn’t about to entertain the bored man. The cashier didn’t seem to mind, just smiled wider and handed him his change.

“May your wishes come true,” the cashier said in parting.

Wesley merely grimaced and lifted his hand in acknowledgement before pushing the trolley full of groceries out of the store. He stopped just outside the doors to sort out his change, putting the notes into the wide pocket and the coins in the small zipper-closed one. He paused as one of the coins caught his attention, it was larger than normal and more bronze than most coins were, even the ones in his grandfather’s collection. Still, he thought, it was just a coin. He’d figure out what to do with it at some point.

That point turned out to be several hours later as he ate at the small Chinese restaurant with a wishing well inside. Wesley was fiddling with the strange coin, turning it around and around in his fingers. His gaze landed on the wishing well and his mind wandered back to the weird phrase the tall cashier had said. _May your wishes come true_.

Wesley shrugged to himself and figured he had nothing to lose. He stood up and threw the coin into the well, thinking about the girl he had spent over half of his life dreaming about. She had never seen him; probably didn’t even know he existed but he still liked her. There was a high chance he loved her, he just needed her to see him and love him in return—to love him more than anything.

Hermes grinned as he watched Wesley Mondale throw the wishing coin into the convenient wishing well in the restaurant. All he had to do now was sit back and watch the chaos happen. Gabriel nudged him softly. “Now the fun begins, eh?”

“Indeed it does, my dear Gabriel.”

“Are you feeling better?”

Hermes smiled down at Gabriel, the other angel’s tone was concerned and regretful at not realising Hermes needed to see chaos to appease his trickster magic. “Yeah, I am. Thanks.”

“Anything you need, I’m here.”

“I know.”

They watched as Wesley was attacked by the object of his wish—Hope Lynn Casey. Well, not attacked; more clung to with a desperate grip and enjoying it immensely. He would start to realise his wish hadn’t come true in quite the way he had wanted it to in a few days. But for now, he was happy and vaguely confused as to how something he had thought was mere superstition and a tourist trap had apparently made a wish of his come true.

Soon, other wishes of people in the town would begin coming true. The whole town would descend into chaos as wishes of random people came true in twisted ways that only a trickster could enjoy fully. It would be delightful and the best part—according to Gabriel—was that Hermes didn’t have to use any of his still adjusting trickster magic to soothe said magic.

It was the perfect scenario. There was also the fact that thanks to the coin they had used, any Hunters that happened upon the town wouldn’t link the happenings to a trickster and would thus leave them alone once they figured out the source of the town’s problems was from the coin. Once that happened, the two of them could take the coin back from the Hunters should they decide to keep it, or from Wesley if they returned it to him, and skip town with no one the wiser of their presence.

The only thing they hadn’t planned on was the Hunters who caught the scent being John and Dean Winchester. The two hunters that were responsible for Hermes becoming Hermes, the original blood family of Samuel Winchester and almost killers of the same man. The two that brought back decidedly unpleasant memories of Hermes’ near death at the hands of his father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is where we begin to completely ignore the canon timeline and instead pluck out random episodes from random seasons that fit the plot.  
> It's also where we arrive at my last currently completed chapter. I will be trying to update at least once a month from now on (hopefully more often but RL does tend to get in the way sometimes). If I haven't updated in three weeks or so, feel free to poke me and demand another chapter!


	14. Wishing for Tricks

Hermes and Gabriel sat together in Lucky Chin’s enjoying marshmallows and a chocolate fountain. The owner had attempted to tell them he didn’t allow outside food in the restaurant but with a wave of Gabriel’s fingers, he forgot all about them. This was their base while the trick played out—a place to see the desperate humans grasping at straws and wishing with a coin.

Dean looked tired. Hidden by the guise of a long-legged brunette (over two-thousand years of being a trickster and under the guidance of those who changed their gender on a whim tended to make one comfortable with claiming any gender as their own at any given moment) sitting across from a shorter blonde, Hermes watched her blood brother as the Winchester investigated the reported ghost sighting. The boy they were hunting had made such a predictable wish – to be able to peek at naked women. Apparently the kid was a ghost now. Hermes wondered how long it would take the Winchesters to figure out it was no ghost and instead an invisible teenager.

After he had finished interviewing the—sadly in Dean’s opinion—now clothed victim of the ‘ghost’ and she had left, Dean slumped over at his table, tiredness radiating out from his collapsed form. The ringing of a cell phone made Dean sit back up and judging by his facial expressions, John was telling him about the Bigfoot someone had wished for. Dean hung up the phone and stared down at it with a confused expression. Eventually, he stood up and started heading out to presumably meet John.

As he passed their table, Hermes smiled at Dean. Dean grinned back; not at all suspecting that the woman was his brother. Hermes watched him go, seeing the extra confidence in his steps. The confident stride was a lot better than the slow, tired steps he had had when he entered the restaurant.

“Strawberry?” Gabriel offered, holding up the fruit for Hermes to take.

A strawberry wasn’t quite the same as a brother, but Hermes was happy to accept it anyway. She smirked and leaned forward to bite the offering in half; the sweetness of strawberry and chocolate lingered in her mouth and she felt her magic spark with pleasure at the sugar.

Gabriel’s eyes also sparked, magic slipping forth as desire glinted within them. “Bedroom?”

Hermes laughed. “And leave all this sugar uneaten?”

“I can think of a few ways we can use it in the bedroom.” Gabriel held out her hand and Hermes took it happily.

“We better get to it, then,” she said.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Hermes cackled as John tried to remove Ermis’ coin from the wishing well. The man who fought monsters on a daily basis couldn’t pry a single coin out of a well. The slow and steady reddening of John’s face as he put more and more effort into removing the coin made the sight all the more sweeter.

When John gave up using just his hands and marched past the invisible Hermes to fetch tools, Hermes decided she was glad it was the Winchesters who had arrived in town. If they hadn’t, it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun. A hammer head flying towards her own head broke her out of her thoughts and she quickly ducked away from the projectile.

Somehow, she didn’t think Gabriel would be very happy with her if she got clobbered by the head of a hammer. Still, John staring astounded at his now broken hammer would have been worth the yelling and mother-henning. As it was, Hermes got to see John’s face without Gabriel fussing over her.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

“So they figured it out,” Gabriel said a few hours later when Hermes returned to the hotel room they were staying in.

Hermes snagged the lollipop from Gabriel’s hand as she passed her and flopped down on the double bed. “Yep. John might be a terrible father but he’s a good hunter.”

Gabriel looked at Hermes and the stolen sweet, unamused. “You stole my lollipop, he clearly never taught you any manners.”

“He didn’t really have the time to do so what with leaving me in a hospital when I was eight and a trickster whisking me off to his home.”

“You asked.”

Hermes smiled softly, twirling the lollipop stick around with her fingers. “Yes, I did. And I’m glad you agreed every day since.”

“How could I ever refuse those puppy-dog eyes of yours?”

“You tell me.”

Gabriel got up and snagged her lollipop back. “Get your own sugar. We setting up a watch on our dear Wesley?”

“He’s certainly amusing to watch.”

“I’ll take the first,” Gabriel said, throwing Hermes a packet of Jolly Ranchers to snack on.

The other trickster caught it and immediately stuffed several of the sweets in her mouth. “I love you.”

“Me or the sugar?” Gabriel laughed before flying off to keep an eye out for hunters approaching the First Wisher.

Hermes shrugged and popped a few more Jolly Ranchers in her mouth. “Both,” she said to an empty room.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

When Loki arrived at the home of Wesley Mondale, Hope was busy at work preparing a lavish meal for the man she loved more than anything. Wesley himself was napping in an armchair. Loki chuckled unheard at Wesley’s uncomfortable expression even in his sleep. Clearly, his wish was already turning sour for him.

While Hope was concentrating on putting the final touches of presentation on the meal, Loki silently rifled through the cupboards and helped herself to the sugary delights she found there. The bastard who made someone love him more than anything didn’t deserve the glory that was sugar and Loki was perfectly happy to take it off his hands.

A bag of M&M’s was consumed as Hope threw herself over Wesley and half a bag of Gummy Bears joined them as the doorbell rang. Loki resisted the urge to throw a few bears at Wesley when he looked so relieved as Hope left him to answer the door.

“Jerk,” Loki said instead of throwing things.

Hope came back into the room with John and Dean Winchester babbling about flowers for the wedding. “Double jerk,” Loki commented at the sight of John Winchester. He would never be forgiven by the trickster archangel.

The four humans in the room paid no attention to the invisible trickster. Hope ran off to grab a wedding folder filled with plans while John and Dean grilled Wesley about his relationship with Hope.

“Enthusiastic fiancée,” Dean noted, watching her leave.

Wesley cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up uncomfortably. “Yes, well, she’s very excited.”

“We read in the newspaper about your surprise engagement. No one even knew you two were dating. Almost like a wish came true, huh?”

Loki laughed as Wesley flinched at the implied knowledge of his actions. “Your little secret’s out, Wes, darling. _They know_.” He whispered the last two words theatrically even though no one would ever hear them.

“We, uh, were in school together ages ago and always liked each other but never did anything about it.” Wesley sniffed and pushed up his glasses again.

John had wandered over to the wall covered in coins while the two had been talking. He leaned closer to them and scrutinised each coin carefully. Loki smirked; they had certainly picked the right stooge for this trick. It was always great when a plan worked perfectly with all the elements falling into place as needed.

“Interesting collection you have here,” John said, calling attention away from the conversation about Hope.

“Family collection,” Wesley explained. “My great-grandfather started it and it’s been handed down and added to ever since.”

John nodded and then pointed to the several blank squares. “You seem to be missing a few.”

Wesley pushed up his glasses and cleared his throat again, clearly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation. “They haven’t been filled yet.”

“You sure? There’s not a coin that you might have been looking at one day and decided to throw into a well?” Dean chuckled at Wes’ visible flinch to the words. Loki almost wanted to share some of the Swedish Fish he was now working through with the hunter for getting the man to react like that.

“I-I don’t know what you mean,” Wesley stammered out.

John threw an arm around Wesley’s shoulders in a friendly fashion. “Is that so? You saying you don’t remember how you went into that restaurant with that old, bronze coin in your hands? Or how you threw that coin into the wishing well there while wishing for your lovely fiancée? You don’t remember that?”

“Ah, well…yes, that. I did throw a coin in the well.” Wesley was highly nervous now, unsure of what the two men would do to him at his confession.

Dean just grinned at him. “We know. What we need you to do is come with us and take it back out.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because wishes are coming true, and not in a good way.” Dean gestured in the direction of the kitchen where Hope had gone. “Surely you’ve realised that this isn’t quite what you wanted when you chucked that coin in. Your wish might have come true, but it’s been twisted. You need to take the coin out so that the wishes of everyone in this town will be reversed.”

 Wesley stared at him. “What? No! I don’t want to do that. I’ll lose Hope!”

John leaned in closer to Wesley, using the arm still flung around his shoulders as leverage. “She’s already lost, Wes.”

Loki watched the three men leave with mixed emotions. Hermes’ trick was coming to an end and she still wasn’t comfortable with Hermes’ expending power needlessly. On the other hand, the two would also be able to leave the presence of John Winchester. Not that either of them had spent much time hovering around him. They had focused on the one they thought to be redeemable—Dean.

Hope came cautiously out of the kitchen after the front door had closed. She looked lost for a few seconds before her face hardened in resolve and she grabbed a coin from Wesley’s collection before rushing out of the house. Loki grinned. Now this was shaping up to be interesting. With a flap of wings, Loki flew back to the hotel room she had left Hermes in.

No way would they be missing out on this scene.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

The two tricksters arrived at Lucky Chin’s in time to see Hope run in and throw the coin she had grabbed into the wishing well. Clearly, she hadn’t bothered to obey road rules in her rush to get to the restaurant before the others. She didn’t notice her invisible audience as she wished to stop the men trying to separate her from the man she loved more than anything.

There was a flash of lightning from outside and through the windows, the three inside could see the figure of John Winchester lying on the ground. Hope had killed him with a strike of lightning via coin. Wesley stood near him, staring in shock and horror.

“Huh,” Loki said. “That was easy.”

Hermes sighed. “If only it was permanent.”

“It will be someday.”

“True.”

Wesley had kept moving while the two of them mourned the fact that John would soon be back on his feet and terrorising the supernatural community. He now stood in front of Hope with the same slack jawed expression he had adopted when John had been electrocuted in front of him.

Hope looked back at him with the same lovestruck gaze she had directed at him since he had first thrown Ermis’ coin in the wishing well. “I had to do it, didn’t I?” she asked him, desperate for approval. “He was going to make you wish away our love. I couldn’t let that happen, I love you.”

“I know, Hope. I know.” Wesley brushed away the wetness that was forming in Hope’s eyes as her current worst nightmare approached. “But this is something that I have to do.”

Hope became frantic. “Please, no! I love you more than anything! Don’t let them take you away!”

Wesley pulled the distraught woman into a final, fierce kiss that both of them knew was likely to be their last. Hope watched on silently when Wesley reached into the wishing well to retrieve the coin. With a final look at Hope, he picked up the coin and brought it out of the water. Those sensitive to magic could feel the wave of it that rippled over the town of Concrete as all the wishes made were undone.

“Hope?” Wesley asked quietly, his voice breaking slightly.

Hope shook herself and asked, “Sorry, do I know you?”

Wesley gave her a trembling smile. “No.”

“Where am I?” Before Wesley could answer, she walked out of the restaurant with confusion on her face as she tried to piece together what had happened. Wesley watched her go, flipping the coin around in his fingers.

Hermes sighed and snapped her own fingers. It would do no good for the Winchesters or some other hunter to come back in a few days just because Wesley was feeling nostalgic. Wesley didn’t notice as the coin he was flipping was switched with a fake version. Hermes flipped the real coin in the air and let it vanish into the pocket dimension that held all of their bits and bobs.

“Can’t let it fall into the hands of John. He’d probably melt it down.”

Loki chuckled. “Knowing him, he would. Still, it served its purpose.”

“Does that mean you’re going to let me do some fun stuff now?” Hermes grinned at Loki as she melted back into his general male form and held up his hands in mock surrender.

“I reserve the right to be worried about you, but I’ll stop hovering as much.”

Hermes kissed Gabriel quickly. “Thank you.”

John burst into the restaurant then, completely revived but with his hair still frizzed from the electricity. The two tricksters burst out laughing at the wild look in his eyes combined with the wild hair. Dean soon followed, panting and bracing himself on his knees as he caught his breath.

“We did it?” he asked.

Wesley nodded sadly, “Yeah. I did it.”

John clapped the man on the shoulder in manly comfort. Addressing Dean, he asked, “The kids?”

“They’re safe.” Dean pointed at John’s hair before dropping his hand back down. “Nice hair.”

John scowled. “I was hit by lightning.”

Hermes followed Gabriel’s lead and also transformed back into a male body before tugging Gabriel out of the restaurant. There was nothing left there for them to do. As he passed his blood father he whispered, “Be careful or you may find yourself being hit by lightning again. And there won’t be any wishing well to undo it.”

Gabriel halted abruptly at the exit of the restaurant, pulling Hermes to a stop as well. “Who…” he trailed off into silence as he gazed around the building in search of whatever had made him stop.

“What is it?” Hermes asked.

“I can feel another angel here. Why is there an angel with the Winchesters?”

Hermes looked around the restaurant, already knowing he wouldn’t see anything. The unknown angel was cloaked just like them but using grace over trickster magic. The two forms of invisibility weren’t compatible and they wouldn’t see each other unless they used the same frequency of cloaking.

Gabriel tugged Hermes out quickly. “Come on. I have no desire to meet any of siblings right now.”

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

As John pried the wishing coin from Wesley Mondale’s reluctant hands, Castiel visually checked Dean for any injuries and soothed the pain from the slowly swelling right hand. The presence of two other beings vanished from the building and Castiel wondered who it was. Was there someone else keeping an eye on the Winchesters? Or could it be his sibling had dropped by to check in on those who had taken their claimed away from them?

Either way, they were gone now and Castiel would continue his mission. He glanced at Dean’s hand a little guiltily. Should he had healed that? His sibling had lost their claimed to these two and here was Castiel easing the pain of one of them. Whichever one of his siblings had sent him here, they probably wouldn’t be very happy with him.

Castiel sent Dean a silent apology and returned the pain to his hand. Those who stole an angel’s claimed deserved no mercy.


	15. A Second Winchester Interlude

Dean jolted awake from seeing his father kill Sam once more to John slamming his laptop shut. The man had been trawling through newspapers and websites for several days now, trying to find a hunt. As Dean watched, John went around the room packing up the little bits and pieces they had lying around the motel room.

Rubbing his eyes and propping himself up on his elbows, Dean asked, “Where are we headed?”

“Lost Creek,” John replied, barely glancing at his son as he packed the bags.

“And what are we dealing with there?”

John shoved his journal into a backpack and shrugged his shoulders. “Something in the woods is taking people every 23 years. It last showed up 23 years ago so this might be our only chance of getting it. Get dressed.”

Dean caught the pile of clothes that was thrown at him and groaned as he levered himself out of bed. It was all well and good hunting the monsters that went bump in the night, but Dean would prefer it if he could fight them with a decent amount of sleep. Not that that was something he had had in a long while.

Nightmares had plagued him since he had left the body of his dead brother behind in a university auditorium. For a while, they had vanished and he had been grateful not to see the pained face of Sammy every night as he slept. The nightmares had come back in full force since the hunt in Concrete, however, and ever since then he had not been able to get any sort of decent sleep. The feeling of eyes on him all the time did nothing to aid his rests and _still_ there was no actual evidence that something was watching them.

“Come on, Dean. Let’s go.” John had all their bags packed and was ready to leave.

Dean waved a hand at him. “Okay, okay, I’m getting dressed.”

“I’ll wait in the car.” The door slammed behind him as the man left the room and Dean sighed. Another day of saving people that weren’t Sammy.

He knew their work was important, that saving people from the supernatural was the family business but he also knew he would never be able to save the person he wanted to the most. Still, he could make sure that other people didn’t lose their brothers to monsters.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Haley Collins checked their ranger identification cards before letting the two hunters in. She had reported her brother and his friends missing a few days ago in the forest they suspected held a monster. The local authorities weren’t taking her seriously given that the three men were out in a place that had no cell phone service other than satellite and had filled in a permit that gave their estimated time away. They believed there was no way Haley could know if someone on a camping trip was missing.

Her and her younger brother—Ben—were both jittery with anxiety for their missing brother. Haley was laying out dinner for her and Ben as John asked her questions about her missing brother. It had been a stroke of luck that they had even found out about Haley being sure that her older brother Tommy had vanished while camping in Blackwater Ridge.

The park ranger they had met while checking out the maps of the region had automatically assumed they were working for her and she had asked them to check if there was any news about Tommy. With some quick thinking and smooth talking, the two hunters had managed to get a location of Haley and the permit Tommy had filled out for his camping trip with his buddies.

“So, why do you think Tommy’s missing?” John asked.

Haley placed a bowl of salad down on the table and answered, “He…he hasn’t messaged us in a few days.”

John rose an eyebrow. “And that says he’s missing, why?”

“Because he _always_ checks in. Every day, no matter what.”

“Maybe he forgot,” Dean suggested. It wasn’t as though the kid couldn’t have been busy having fun with his friends that he forgot to check in with his brother and sister.

Haley shook her head. “He wouldn’t do that. Our parents are dead, and we take care of each other. He wouldn’t just forget to check in. We’ve lost too much already to lose each other.”

John ignored the emotion that started to clog up Haley’s speech and instead suggested, “Out of reception?”

“He has a satellite phone.” Haley was glaring at John now, clearly unimpressed with him.

Dean quickly took over from his father. “Okay, we’ll look into it and let you know how we get along.”

“I’m coming with you.” Haley’s glare was directed at Dean now, though it wasn’t as angry as it had been when she had been talking to John. “If you’re going to look for Tommy, we’re coming to.”

Ben—who had up until now been sitting at the table nibbling small bits of food and watching the conversation—nodded. He looked scared but determined to find his brother and that just made Dean think of his own brother.

“It’ll be safer for you here,” he tried, already knowing that nothing would stop the two of them. If he had even the slightest hint of where Sam had been after he had vanished from the hospital all those years ago, not even his father could have stopped him from leaving to find Sammy.

“We’re going to find Tommy. He’s our brother. Would you leave your brother’s fate up to a couple of rangers you barely know?”

No, he wouldn’t. Although he had left Sammy in the hands of a trickster—however unknowing he had been, it had still happened. Sammy could still be with them now, hunting for whatever was in the woods with them if their father hadn’t decided to leave him in a hospital alone.

“My brother’s dead,” he said shortly and Haley clapped her mouth shut as she realised what she had just said.

“I’m sorry.”

John just growled. “I don’t care if he’s your brother or not. You’re not coming with us. Thanks for the information, we’ll let you know if we find him.”

With that, he jerked his head at Dean and stormed out of the house. Dean grimaced in apology to the siblings and hurriedly followed his father. Any mention of Sammy made him mad and Dean didn’t want to add onto his father’s mood by taking longer than necessary to leave the Collins’ residence.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

After spending some time doing research and talking to the only survivor of the so-called grizzly attacks of Blackwater Ridge, the two Winchesters were ready to head out into the woods and find whatever monster was occupying them. They knew it was fast, smart, and corporeal. Dean figured it might be a skinwalker or a black dog, both of which they knew how to deal with.

When they arrived at the trail entrance, they found a party of three already there and gearing up to head out. Dean smiled slightly to himself, he knew there was no way were Haley and Ben leaving their brother out there alone. They were joined by an older guy with the look of a game hunter.

John took one look at the three and groaned. Dean knew his father was thinking of how he would protect the three inexperienced people. Dean just shrugged and hopped out of the Impala shouting, “You got room for two more?”

As it turned out, they did. Or more likely, they knew that John and Dean would come along anyway and didn’t want to have a pointless argument. Although apparently their attire wasn’t ranger-y enough for Haley and she quietly quizzed Dean as to why they were in the woods and had posed as rangers before.

Dean’s just as quiet reply that they were trying to help and that he, for one, didn’t want anyone else to lose their brother seemed to be answer enough for her. After that, Dean, Haley, and Ben walked in silence together behind John and Roy—the guide Haley had hired—sharing the big bag of M&M’s Dean had brought with him.

After a few hours of trekking through the trees and avoiding bear traps, the group of five stumbled upon what could only be the destroyed campsite of Tommy Collins and his two friends. Haley and Ben stared at the ruined tents splattered with blood in horror, not willing to believe this could have happened to their brother.

Haley dumped her backpack on the ground and started calling out for Tommy. Ben also dropped his pack to the ground as he stared around the campsite. Roy dropped his to start rifling through it for something. John examined the site to see if he could find any hints as to what they were facing, and Dean quickly ran over to Haley to stop her from announcing their presence.

They looked around the campsite in silence for a few minutes, checking to see if there was any hint to where the three men might have gone. Dean found dragging marks leading away from the campsite that vanished not far from the tents. The men had been dragged away by whatever had attacked them. John looked over the tracks and agreed; whatever they were hunting, it definitely wasn’t a grizzly.

Just as the two hunters were returning to the camp, a voice yelling for help echoed through the trees and all five of them started running to the source of the sound. Haley and Ben both shouted for Tommy as they went, letting the other three know that the voice most likely belonged to the missing Collins brother.

The voice stopped and they all came to a halt. “It was coming from over here, right?” Haley asked.

John looked around the patch of trees they had found themselves in and started backing up. “Everyone back to camp. Now!”

With John using the military voice he had so often employed when teaching Dean and Sam, there was no argument from the others and they all ran back to the campsite. The former marine stayed behind the others, ushering them all on and keeping the fast pace going until they reached the clearing. As soon as they arrived, they noticed something missing.

“Our packs! Where have they gone?” Haley voiced the question on everyone’s mind as they stared at the empty patches of earth that had once held the backpacks they had lugged through the woods.

Roy snorted softly. “So much for my GPS and satellite phone.”

John nodded in response. “It’s smart. Wants to cut us off so we can’t call for help.”

As the others worked out what they would do without the provisions they had packed, John pulled Dean away from the main site and non-hunters. He glanced back to make sure no one was paying them attention before saying, “We’re facing a wendigo.”

Dean stared at his father, utterly shocked. “Dad, wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or northern Michigan. There’s never been a sighting of them this far west.”

“Oh yeah? Want to explain what else would have claws to make the marks we’ve seen, or the way it can mimic a human voice?”

“Great,” Dean sighed before holding up his gun. “This is useless then.”

“We’re going to have to find something flammable,” John agreed.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Night had fallen. John and Dean finished drawing the safety circle in the ground so that the wendigo couldn’t attack them in the campsite. John went to talk with Roy, the two men had bonded on the trek in over their shared military experience. Dean sat in front of the fire and stared into the flames. After a few minutes, Haley sat down next to him, shifting uncomfortably as she worked up the courage to say whatever it was she wanted to say.

“So,” she started, “monsters are real.”

Dean threw a twig into the fire. “Yep. A whole bunch of them.”

“And your family… What? Hunts them?”

“Pretty much. We try and protect people from them, keep them safe from what they don’t even know is real.” He snorted softly as he threw another twig at the flames. “The family business, you could say.”

There was silence before she asked quietly, carefully, “Is that what happened to your brother? He didn’t know about the monsters and they got to him?”

Dean’s eyes flicked to his father, slapping Roy’s back as he chuckled at something the other man had said. “You could say that.” He threw another stick in. “Sammy was a great kid, something happened and he had to go to the hospital. Dad didn’t want to hang around while he got better so he dragged me off to go hunt other things.

“By the time I convinced Dad to take us back, Sammy was gone. Taken in by a trickster who cared more about a random kid than Dad did his own son. I never stopped looking for him though. Every town we went to, I looked for my baby brother. And then, I found him.”

“What happened?” Haley prompted after he had remained silent for a minute.

Dean shrugged. “He’d become one of them. I didn’t care, he was my brother, but Dad… Dad cared. Dad cared so much that he killed the guy who had saved Sammy and then killed my brother too.”

Haley gasped, turning her head to stare at John. She had been starting to like the gruff man but the knowledge that he had killed his own son purely because he had become something he didn’t like instantly made her rethink. It also made her worry about her own brother’s safety.

“Can I still trust him?”

Dean threw the last of his twigs into the fire and stood up. “Yeah. He’ll do anything to get the wendigo that took your brother.”

Haley watched him go as he walked to the edge of the safety circle, staring out into the darkness. Talking about Sammy brought up all the memories that were usually kept in his nightmares. Even the good memories of a young Sammy turned into nightmares. He started as a laugh filtered through the trees, hand going to his gun even though he knew it would be useless against the wendigo.

“You’re too slow, Lo!” a voice said faintly.

Another voice replied. “Unlike you, I am not built for this hunting malarkey!”

“Still complaining about dear old Dad, are we?”

There was a snort. “You know you hate him just as much as I do.”

The voices stopped as another started up. “Help! Somebody, please! Help!”

Haley rushed to Dean’s side with Ben not far behind her. “Tommy.”

Dean shook his head. “No. It’s the wendigo using Tommy’s voice to lure us out.”

“Everybody stay in the circle!” John commanded. He and Roy were on the other side of the circle, staring out to try and locate the monster.

Roy cocked his gun and aimed it into the darkness. “You were right, that’s no grizzly.”

“I also said your gun won’t do anything but make it mad and you’re still going to try and shoot it?”

“I’m a good shot.” Roy declared, grinning confidently at John before refocusing on the trees.

A flame streaked through the woods to halt in the black mass that was a wendigo, setting it alight and killing it instantly. A woman and a man strode into the light from the campfire—the woman shouldering a bow as she walked. They looked like complete opposites. The female had silver hair done in a side braid while the male had golden hair spiking upwards. Standing together, they looked as though they could be the sun and moon.

“It’s not about how good you are,” she said, ignoring the guns pointed at her and her companion by Roy, John, and Dean. “It’s about having the right tool for the job.”

“And I suppose you think a bow and arrow is the right tool?” Roy asked condescendingly.

The woman shrugged and jerked her thumb in the direction of the now-dead wendigo. “It certainly worked well enough.”

“Yeah, because I lit it,” the man next to her said and she scowled at him.

“I could have managed perfectly fine without you, Lo. You just had to come along on my hunt because Dad was yelling at you again and you wanted out.”

“How will we find Tommy?” Haley asked from beside Dean.

There hadn’t really been much of a plan of how to find the missing campers once it was revealed that a wendigo had taken them. There were miles of woods to cover and given how fast a wendigo could move, it wasn’t even a certainty that Tommy and the others were nearby. The male stranger heard her and abandoned his argument with the female.

“Who’s Tommy?”

“Our brother,” Haley replied, pulling Ben closer to her. “He was taken by that thing and now I don’t know how we’ll ever find him.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” He stepped towards her with his hands held up in the universal ‘don’t shoot me’ position as he walked past the men holding guns. “We’ll find him. I know what it’s like to lose a brother. My sister here is the best hunter you could ever meet. She tracked down our brother after he had been radio silent for four days, she can find yours.”

“Did you just offer my services to them, A—“ she  glanced at John before finishing, “—lonso? Without even asking?”

He grinned at her. “Why yes I did, my dear Anastasia. These two are missing their brother and you are _very_ good at finding missing brothers.”

“I hate you,” she stated and Alonso’s grin widened.

“I know.”

Haley turned desperate eyes on Anastasia. “Please, will you help us?”

Before she could answer, Roy stepped in. “Woah, woah, woah, back up there a little bit. That’s what you hired me to do, remember? We don’t need the help of some strangers that appeared out of nowhere.”

 “It’s a big forest,” Anastasia retorted. “I would’ve thought you’d welcome an extra pair of eyes. But if you don’t want me, my brother and I will go.”

“No!” Ben finally spoke up after being silent for most of the trip. With the prospect of actually being able to find his brother, he couldn’t stand seeing it walk away. “You have to help. Roy’s not in charge, my sister is and she wants your help.”

“Well then, I suggest you all rest up and we’ll set off in the morning.”


End file.
